The Campus GREEN
UMA SELECTS ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AS ITS 2008 - 2009 ACADEMIC THEME
This year's theme explores the ways society's needs are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. What are the practices that will ensure resources are available for our great-great grandchildren? How can we minimize use of non-renewable resources and promote the health of our environment and its inhabitants?
THEME BOOK: Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert
The book chosen for its relationship to the theme is based on an award winning three-part series first published in the New Yorker where the author is a staff writer. Elizabeth Kolbert traces global warming effects from the melting Alaskan permafrost to the endangered Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. Her descriptions of the scientists and how they do their research provide a valuable window on the nature of the scientific community and why there is concern about the climate changes evidenced worldwide.
THEME EVENTS
September 19, 2008
Bus trip to the Common Ground Fair
Sponsored by the Student Life Office and SGA
Contact Melissa Dudley at 621-3374 for more information
October 19, 2008 Convocation
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Paul Mayewski, Director and Professor of the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine
Dr. Mayewski has led more than 45 expeditions to remote regions of the world where he has collected snow samples and ice cores from such places as Antarctica, the Arctic, the Andes, New Zealand, the Himalayas, and the Tibetan Plateau. With over 300 publications in scientific journals, his studies of climate change and atmospheric chemistry have contributed to the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Panel and former Vice President Al Gore shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Mayewski is coauthor of a popular climate change book, The Ice Chronicles, and is a recipient of the 2007 Lowell Thomas Medal from the Explorers Club and numerous honors recognizing his contributions to understanding climate change.
October 2008
Danforth Gallery
Bob Katz and Jere De Waters - Collaborative Exhibit
Date and Place TBA
UMA's Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory Presentation, Craig Pratt
December 2008
Danforth Gallery
Trust in December - Pato Hebert - exhibit
April 16, 2009
Biology Lecture
Brave New World: Global climate change, fishing and the future of our blue planet
Dr. Robert Steneck, University of Maine professor of oceanography, marine biology, and marine policy, studies the effects of global climate change on lobsters, fish and coral reefs. His research takes him from the Gulf of Maine to such places as the Caribbean, the Great Barrier Reef, and Papua New Guinea.
April 18 & 19, 2009
Terry Plunkett Maine Poetry Festival
Celebrating Environmental Sustainability in verse
Learn what you can do to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Sponsored by the President's Council for Environmental Sustainability