Maryland's Public System of Higher Education

Week of March 18, 2013

News from Across the USM Campuses

March 24^th Deadline for Applications - University of Maryland, College Park Office of Sustainability Seeking Interns for the Summer 2013. The following internship positions are available: Environmentally Preferable Procurement, Education and Outreach; Green Office Education and Outreach; and Measurement and Assessment.

March 25^th - Dr. Tom Miller, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory Director - "The Latest News at CBL." This lecture is a part of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory Outreach Series. Seminar will be held Monday at 1:30 PM in the Bernie Fowler Lab, Room #1101. Seminar is free and open to the public.

April 15^th - 16^th - Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference - Colleges and universities are incubators of innovation, tackling the biggest challenges of society through creative means. The 2013 Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference provides the setting to learn, share and explore how campuses are using their passion for innovation to develop technologies, infrastructure, programs and curricula that address the world's most pressing sustainability challenges.

April 27^th - Towson University's 5th Annual Environmental Conference - The annual conference addresses the impact of individuals and communities on the environment and actions that individuals and communities can take to positively impact the environment and create a more sustainable world. The conference is designed to raise awareness among students, faculty and staff about environmental topics, issues and solutions. Each year members of the campus community gather to hear presentations from faculty, students and environmental leaders in the Baltimore region.

State of Maryland News

March 12^th - 24^th - 21^st Annual Environmental Film Festival, Washington, DC. The vital role of earth's rivers in human survival and their vulnerability in the changing global environment is theme of the 2013 Festival. The locations for the screening of films that make up the festival, will be held at a variety of venues in the DC Metro area, including several in Maryland.

Statement from Governor Martin O'Malley on the Passage of the Maryland Offshore Wind Energy Act of 2013 (Office of Governor Martin O'Malley, Press Release, 3/18/13)

MDE Highlights Importance of Properly Functioning Septic Systems and Drinking Water Wells for Groundwater Awareness Week: Department Recommends Annual Maintenance to Protect Groundwater, Public Health (Maryland Department of the Environment, Press Release, 3/14/13)

Coming to a curb near you: Compost collection (By Steve Hendrix, The Washington Post, 3/11/13)

USM Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Initiative

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Interior Department: Shell 'Screwed Up' in the Arctic: As Interior Department gives 'slap on the wrist' to Big Oil, green groups assert that it will never be safe to drill in those waters (By Lauren McCauley, CommonDreams.org, 3/15/13)

Superheated American City Dealing with 110 Degrees for 33 Days -- Phoenix Confronts Apocalyptic Climate Change: Horrific heat, droughts, windstorms, water shortages and forest fires will plague nation's 13th largest city. (By William de Buys, Tom Dispatch as reported by Alternet.org, 3/14/13)

Herbicides for GMOs Driving Monarch Butterfly Populations to 'Ominous' Brink - Scientist: "If we pull the monarchs out of the system, we're really pulling the rug out from under a whole lot of other species" (Lauren McCauley, CommonDreams.org, 3/14/13)

Penguins In Antarctica At Serious Risk As Ice Melt Continues (VIDEO) (By Dominique Mosbergen, The Huffington Post - Green Blog, 3/13/13)

The Earth Is Warming Faster Now Than It Has in 11,000 Years (By Phil Plait, Slate.com, 3/13/13)

Climate Movement Claims 'Victory' After Direct Action Suit Dropped by Energy Giant: 'Only a few of us went up that chimney but 64,000 people came down.' (By Jon Queally, CommonDreams.org, 3/13/13)

Storms Will Be Stronger In A Warming World (By Adam Voiland, NASA Earth Observatory as reported by ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress Blog, 3/13/13)

Keystone Pipeline Jobs Numbers Are Probably Exaggerated, Obama Allegedly Told Republicans (By Matthew Daly, The Huffington Post - Green Blog, 3/13/13)

Despite Efforts to Suppress, Cleaner Energy Continues Inevitable Rise: Though the fossil fuel industry maintains iron grip, attractiveness of common sense renewables trumps all (By Jon Queally, CommonDreams.org, 3/13/13)

3 Reasons Why We Should Stop New Gas Drilling Before it Starts: Too many people -- especially politicians -- aren't paying attention to the dangers of the current "boom" in natural gas development. (By Michael Brune, GlobalPossibilities.org in partnership with Alternet.org - Environment Blog, 3/13/13)

Michigan Air Pollution Lawsuit Filed By Sierra Club Alleges DTE Energy Violated Clean Air Act (By David Sands, The Huffington Post - Green Blog, 3/12/13)

Forests growing in thawed-out Arctic (By John Upton, Grist.org, 3/11/13)

Top Military Officer: Climate Change Biggest Threat to Security - Admiral Samuel Locklear told the Boston Globe that global warming could 'cripple the security environment.' (By Alex Kane, Alternet.org - News and Politics, 3/11/13)

HOT WATER: ‘Erin Brockovich of Uranium' Exposes the Toxic Legacy of Nuclear Power (Published by Zero Hot Documentary as reported by CommonDreams.org, 3/11/13)

N.Y. Times and Thomas Friedman call for killing Keystone (By Lisa Hymas, Grist.org, 3/11/13)

A Dry Spring: Drought Expands In Texas And Florida, Pounding State Economies (By Jeff Spross, ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress Blog, 3/11/13)