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 News |
Aquacalypse Now
- The End of Fish
Our oceans have been the victims of a giant Ponzi scheme, waged with Bernie Madoff–like callousness by the world’s fisheries. Beginning in the 1950s, as their operations became increasingly industrialized--with onboard refrigeration, acoustic fish-finders, and, later, GPS--they first depleted stocks of cod, hake, flounder, sole, and halibut in the Northern Hemisphere. As those stocks disappeared, the fleets moved southward, to the coasts of developing nations and, ultimately, all the way to the shores of Antarctica, searching for icefishes and rockcods, and, more recently, for small, shrimplike krill.
Read more here.
Antarctica glacier retreat creates new carbon dioxide store
 Large blooms of tiny marine plants called phytoplankton are flourishing in areas of open water left exposed by the recent and rapid melting of ice shelves and glaciers around the Antarctic Peninsula. This remarkable colonisation is having a beneficial impact on climate change. As the blooms die back phytoplankton sinks to the sea-bed where it can store carbon for thousands or millions of years.
Reporting this week in the journal Global Change Biology, scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) estimate that this new natural 'sink' is taking an estimated 3.5 million tonnes* of carbon from the ocean and atmosphere each year.
Read more here.
Green Jobs for Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans
The Department of Labor distributed $7.5 million in employment and training grants back in July 2009 designated to help Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans obtain green jobs.
Swords to Plowshares, a San Francisco Bay Area veteran service agency, is one of seventeen recipients nationwide and was awarded $300,000 to help Bay Area Iraq and Afghanistan veterans train for employment in the green industry. Read more here.
Opinion: Veterans back clean energy as key to national security -
Ridding ourselves of dependency on foreign oil will boost nation.
On this Veterans Day, we pause to recognize the service our military veterans have given to ensure the security of our country. Military veterans have been assigned, lived, worked, and many times fought, all over the world. Protecting and providing for the security of our country has always been our mission.
During our planning and training, we were always taught to consider the long-range consequences of our actions; however, during the past several years our nation has not been doing that effective planning. Here in Springfield we have recently seen the unpleasant consequences of faulty long range planning.
Read more here.
California proposal could outlaw large plasma TVs
The days of enormous, energy-hogging televisions -- especially plasma TVs -- could be coming to an end. Next week the California Energy Commission is set to vote on a proposal that could send shockwaves through the consumer electronics industry. Specifically, if the proposal passes, it would limit power consumption of all televisions sold in the state to about two-thirds the amount of power they consume today, beginning in 2011. Read more here.
Proposed quota 'frustrating' for sustainable fishery
NEW BEDFORD — The deep and murky waters of fishery management in New England just became a little murkier for Jon Williams, CEO of the Atlantic Red Crab Company in the city.
In the middle of September, his company was awarded certification by the Marine Stewardship Council, a London-based nonprofit that seeks to influence consumers by issuing ecolabels to fisheries around the globe that it deems sustainable. Read more here.
New Bedford emerging as cleantech leader
 NEW BEDFORD — Efforts by city officials to position the city as a "cleantech" hub have started to pay off, and many industry experts say the city could see a burst of economic activity over the next several years.
"Is there going to be a 1,500-person, thin-film manufacturing facility in New Bedford tomorrow? No," said John DeVillars, a partner at Blue Wave Strategies, an advisory company to renewable energy projects. Read more here.
Saltmarsh restoration project eyed for site of former Round Hill airport runways
DARTMOUTH — From 1928 until his death in 1936, multimillionaire Col. Edward H. R. Green's private airport at Round Hill was one of the finest in the country, with finely manicured grass runways and flood lights and huge neon tubes atop the mansion that served as a beacon to fliers such as Charles Lindbergh, Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle and William Randolph Hearst Jr., all of whom landed there. Read more here. |
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This Week in Sustainability
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Winter Bird feeding |
Thursday, November 12, 2009, 7 – 9pm, Caratunk Wildlife Refuge, 301 Brown Avenue, Seekonk MA (directions)
Learn how to design a successful bird feeding station. Review different types of feeders, placement suggestions and other components such as plant selection and water in the landscape. There will be a slide show presentation of species that can be attracted to your yard with interesting information and bird identification tips. |
Northeast Biochar Symposium 2009 |
November 13, 8:30am - 5:15pm, UMass Amherst
The Northeast Biochar Symposium 2009 will highlight current biochar research and technological advances and provide vital information to public officials, researchers, farmers and landscape professionals, green industry businesses, and sustainable energy professionals. The symposium will provide a forum for the exchange of research findings, help to gain national media attention and stimulate discussion on biochar. It will also establish a Northeast Biochar Research Consortium. Learn more and register here. |
Historic Barns in Southeastern Massachusetts |
November 16, 6:30PM, Bristol County Agricultural High School (in the library), 135 Center St., Dighton
Barns are a treasured part of the rural Massachusetts landscape but are too quickly becoming an endangered species. Hear about the styles of barns in Southeastern Massachusetts, tips on stabilizing barns until full preservation can begin, and how the Community Preservation Act supports historic preservation in other Massachusetts towns. Speakers include master timberframer Ian Ellison and other Massachusetts historic preservation specialists.
Submit pictures of local barns with specific questions to Kelley Whitmore, kwhitmore@ttor.org. Please know we may not be able to cover all submissions. Pre-registration via email to Kelley is requested by not required. |
Invaders in Our Midst |
Tuesday, November 17th, 9:30am, Union United Methodist Church - 600 Highland Ave, Fall River
An educational program that will tell about the havoc being caused by the Asian Longhorned Beetle and the danger it presents for many of our trees. Presented by Jennifer Forman-Orth, PhD, State Survey Coordinator for Massachusetts Department of Agriculture. Hosted by Fall River Garden Club. Open to the public. Free. |
Religion, Science and the Environment: A Black Sea Cruise |
Tuesday, November 17th, 12-1:30 pm, UMass Dartmouth Library Browsing Area
The first Earth Day in 1970 provided hope and a rallying point for addressing environmental quality needs that had grown acute in "backyards", and some that had been festering for decades on a much larger scale such as DDT and other chlorinated pesticides, PCBs, oil spills, and direct discharge of raw municipal and industrial sewage to rivers, lakes and coastal ocean areas. During the 1970s and early 1980s there was progress, although some of the problems of those times linger today. Simultaneously, there were growing concerns about the reality of human civilization engineering planet Earth to the detriment of valued living natural resources and humans. This led visionary leaders in the religious, scientific, and political sectors to attempt to instill a sense of urgency into responses to this growing crisis by combining scientific facts about the environmental concerns with the inspirational forces of religions and belief structures to support policies that would contain global and regional environmental degradation (e.g. global biotic impoverishment, human induced climate change), and put humanity on a path of sustainability. This talk is about a brief history of aspects of these interactive religion, science, and environment efforts and a specific regional example that began in the Mediterranean and Black Sea area in the late 1990s. Learn more here. |
Environmental Studies under Sail - Sea Creatures, Policy, Pollution and Adventure on the High Seas |
Tuesday, November 17, 7pm, Ocean Explorium, New Bedford
Join us for the Ocean Voice speaker series every Tuesday evening at 7 PM. Admission is $3 adults and $2 for seniors and children. Dr. Erik Zettler, Assoc. Dean for Institutional Relations and Research,
Sea Education Association
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Sustainability Workshop 101: Reducing Your Office Footprint |
Wednesday, November 18, 1:30 - 3:00 pm, UMass Dartmouth Woodland Commons
Presenters: Michael LaGrassa and staff from the Office of Campus and Community Sustainability. Learn more here.
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Save The Date
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Sustainability Webtools 101 (Sustainability in the Classroom) |
Thursday, November 19, 1:30 - 3:00 pm, UMass Dartmouth Dion 109
Presenter: Rich Legault of CITS. Learn more here.
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Plastic Debris in the Ocean and at S.E.A. |
Tuesday, November 24, 7pm, Ocean Explorium, New Bedford
Join us for the Ocean Voice speaker series every Tuesday evening at 7 PM. Admission is $3 adults and $2 for seniors and children. Dr. Kara Lavender Law, Chief Scientist, Sea Education Association
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Build a Bird Feeder Workshop |
Saturday, November 28, 1:00pm, Buttonwood Park Zoo, New Bedford
These Plexiglas and plywood bird feeders make great holiday gifts! One birdhouse kit is included in the program fee. Additional kits will be available for purchase the day of the workshop at the price of $6 each. This workshop is recommended for children age 5 and older. There is no charge for adults to attend the workshop. Participants must pre-register and pre-pay online or by calling 508-991-4556, ext 14. Cost: $15/child for Zoo Members, $22/child for Non-Members.
Register here. |
Sustainability Film Series - Soylent Green |
Wednesday, December 2, 6:30 pm, UMass Dartmouth Library Browsing Area
The is the year 2022. Overcrowding, pollution, and resource depletion have reduced society's leaders to finding food for the teeming masses. The answer is Soylent Green - an artificial nourishment whose actual ingredients are not known by the public. Thorn is the tough homicide detective who stumbles onto the secret so terrifying no one would dare believe him. |
Dartmouth Wind Turbine
Project Forum |
Wednesday, December 2, 7-9 PM, in the Dartmouth Middle School
auditorium
There will be briefings by the AEC, ADE, DPW, FinCom, ConCom and
others who have been working with us. There will be questions from the
audience and answers from us. Statements from folks who support the
project are also welcome. |
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Announcements
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Spring Sustainability Courses |
UMass Dartmouth is pleased to announce its spring, 2010 sustainability courses. See the course list here.
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Weekly Green Tip
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100+ Green Gift ideas |
Green Holiday gift ideas for everyone on your list.
Click here to learn more. |
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