Maryland's Public System of Higher Education

Week of September 16, 2013

News from Across the USM Campuses

September 17^th - University of Maryland, Baltimore Farmers' Market - The farmers' market, co-sponsored by the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland Medical Center, is entering its fourth year. It is open every Tuesday from May 14^th through November 26^th from 10:00am to 2:30pm. The location is at the University Plaza Park across from the Medical Center's main entrance.

September 19^th - Laura Lapham, of the UMCES Chesapeake Biological Laboratory?- "Methane biogeochemistry: From natural hydrocarbon seeps to oil blow-outs." This event is hosted by David Nelson. Seminar will be held on Thursday (9/19) at 3:30pm and the location is Room 109 of the Appalachian Laboratory.

September 20^th - Donal Baron?of the DC Water and Sewer Authority?- "DC Water's Clean Rivers project: A project to improve the District's rivers." This event is a part of the UMBC's Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE) Fall 2013 Seminar Series. The seminar will be held on Friday at 2:00pm in the Technology Research Center, Room 206, on the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus, and is free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Visitor parking passes for the Technology Research Center lot may be purchased for $4.00 in the CUERE office in TRC 102/105 shortly before seminar.

UMES plans to install 2 wind turbines for student, faculty research (By The Associated Press as reported by The Washington Post, 9/12/13) 

Free repair stations help univ bikers (By Holly Cuozzo, The Diamondback Online, 9/9/13, updated 9/10/13)

State of Maryland News

September 19^th - Antimicrobials and Aquaculture: A Public Health Concern? This lecture is by Felipe Cabello, MD, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, New York Medical College. The event, presented by the Johns Hopkins Center for a  Livable Future, will be held from 12:00 - 1:15 pm?at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, located at 615 North Wolfe Street?(Room W4030) in Baltimore, MD.

September 23^rd - 27^th - Home Grown School Lunch Week - Students in hundreds of public schools across the state will get a taste of fresh, Maryland-grown and produced food in their school lunches during the Sixth Annual Maryland Homegrown School Lunch Week. Maryland was the first state in the nation to have every public school system participate in Homegrown School Lunch, an element of the Maryland Farm to School program, which provides students with local food items in their lunches for the week and complementary educational activities that emphasize food, farming and nutrition.  Learn more about the Farm to School Program.

New Maryland Coalition Urges Governor O'Malley to Cease the Drafting of Fracking Regulations: Marylanders Against Fracking and Delegate Shane Robinson Warn of Fracking's Negative Impacts (CommonDreams.org - Newswire, 9/12/13)

National and International News

Your Half-Eaten Sandwich's Dirty Secret: Food waste is killing the planet. Here's how. (By Kiera Butler, Mother Jones - Environment Blog, 9/16/13)

The President and the Pipeline: The campaign to make the Keystone XL the test of Obama's resolve on climate change. (By Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker Magazine, 9/16/13)

'Thousand-Year Flood' in Colorado Has Climate Change Written All Over It: With more than 1,200 people missing and at least six dead, nature's fury in Colorado is the story of a warming planet (By Common Dreams staff, CommonDreams.org, 9/16/13)

The 5 stages of climate denial are on display ahead of the IPCC report: Climate contrarians appear to be running damage control in the media before the next IPCC report is published (By John Abraham and Dana Nuccitelli, The [UK] Guardian - Climate Consensus The 97% Blog, 9/15/13)

Severe climate risks upgraded from "red" to newly added "purple": The U.N. decided a new color was needed to accurately represent global warming's threats (By Lindsay Abrams, Salon.com, 9/13/13)

Will Bloomberg's Successor Continue His Green Legacy? From bike lanes to building codes, New York's next mayor will shape the city's climate policy. (By Ben Adler, Grist.org as reported by Mother Jones - Environment Blog, 9/13/13)

Why Kansas is Running Out of Water (By Chris Tackett, Truuhugger.com - Science Blog, 9/13/13)

TEPCO Official: Fukushima is Out of Control - Statement contradicts assurances of Japanese PM, comes as fresh steam is spotted billowing from reactor (By Sarah Lazare, CommonDreams.org, 9/13/13)

Corporations are all talk about preventing climate change: A report finds that some of world's major companies are emitting more greenhouse gasses than before (By Lindsay Abrams, Salon.com 9/12/13) 

Kentucky Governor Stands Up To Climate Deniers, Defends Teaching Science In Schools (By Katie Valentine, ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress, 9/12/13)

States That Get The Most Disaster Aid Have Sent Dozens Of Climate Deniers To Congress (By Daniel J. Weiss, ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress Blog, 9/12/13)

Court Rulings Accept Climate Science (By Michael B. Gerrard, The New York Law Journal - Environmental Law, 9/12/13)

Kentucky Governor Stands Up To Climate Deniers, Defends Teaching Science In Schools (By Kate Valentine, ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress Blog, 9/12/13)

Is this a La Niña or El Niño year? Try La Nada (By John Upton, Grist.org, 9/11/13)

1 Percent of America's Power Plants Emit 33 Percent of Energy Industry's Carbon (By Thomas Stackpole, Mother Jones Magazine - Blue Marble Blog, 9/11/13)

Why Firefighters Are Scared of Solar Power (By Mike Riggs, The Atlantic Cities Blog, 9/11/13)

Conservatives Pressure Textbook Publishers To Downplay Existence Of Climate Change, Evolution (By Igor Volsky, ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress Blog, 9/10/13)

Wisconsin libertarians embrace solar power: The Libertarians' stamp of approval could help change the state's long-polarized energy debate (By Midwest Energy News as reported by Salon.com, 9/10/13)

No Keystone? No Problem: TransCanada Pushing Another Major Tar Sands Pipeline (By Kiley Kroh, ThinkProgress.org - Climate Progress Blog, 9/10/13)

Neil Young: Tar Sands Fields 'Look Like Hiroshima': Singer says tar sands development left Fort McMurray a 'wasteland' that is 'truly a disaster' (By Jacob Chamberlain, CommonDreams.org, 9/10/13)

How climate change is linked to Syria's war: Severe drought and water shortages are an overlooked factor in the region's unrest (By Lindsay Abrams, Salon.com, 9/10/13)

One Weird Trick to Fix Farms Forever (By Tom Philpott, Grist.org, 9/10/13)

Obama signs on to three international climate pacts in three days: Barack Obama is walking the climate-change talk - all around the world. Or at least endorsing climate-change pacts. (By John Upton, Grist.org, 9/9/13)

Scientists help farmers create greener dairies (By M.L. Johnson, Salon.com, 9/9/13)

20,000 Gallons of Water Stolen From Elementary School in Drought-Plagued County

This was the second water theft in the rural area over the last several weeks. (By Aviva Shen, Alternet.org - Environment Blog, 9/9/13)

After Sandy, rethinking microgrids: Connecticut has become the first state to begin a statewide microgrid program (By Bobby Magill, Salon.com, 9/9/13)