Feature Channels: Environmental Science

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Exploiting a little-known punch/counterpunch strategy in the ongoing battle between disease-causing fungi and crop plants, scientists in Canada are reporting development of a new class of "green" fungicides that could provide a safer, more environmentally-friendly alternative to conventional fungicides. Their study is scheduled for presentation in March at the 237th National meeting of the American Chemical Society.

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Fueled by the slogan "Turn your lights off, turn the Earth on!" Misericordia University's new environmentally-focused student group, Cougars for Change, is leading campus efforts to participate in a world-wide initiative to draw attention to responsible energy use and global warming.

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Dan Brabander wants to put the green in "“ and take the lead out of "“ urban gardens. As associate professor of geosciences at Wellesley College, his focus is on environmental geochemistry and public health. To that end, he has received funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has formed a partnership with Boston's Food Project, a nonprofit organization that helps foster organic urban gardens. For the past five years, Brabander and his Wellesley College student researchers have been testing for lead contamination in urban backyard gardens in Boston neighborhoods.

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The new Bright Green MBA program offered by the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management at Alliant International University in San Diego is designed to meet the needs of these different groups. From our research, we have identified the top four reasons for choosing a Green MBA.

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Stony Brook University and Medical Center sponsor initiative to recycle pharmaceuticals.

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The student residents of Wellesley's sustainability co-op housing have made a commitment to buying and cooking locally and sustainably. Also essential to the new model of co-op living on campus is a community-based lifestyle. Nine students currently live in the sustainable housing wing of Simpson Hall on the Wellesley College campus in rooms that share a common living area and kitchen.

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George Washington University experts are available to discuss climate change, Earth Day, and sustainability.

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Drexel University began construction on a $69 million building that will include a "Bio Wall" or living biofilter for energy efficiency and improved indoor air quality. The building will be the first at a university in the United States to include a Bio Wall.

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Richard Alley of Penn State, V. "Ram" Ramanathan of Scripps demonstrated global reach and severity of human impacts on climate; will deliver public lectures at USC on April 23.

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Calling New Orleans "the canary in the global warming coal mine," two Tulane professors say the Crescent City must embrace unconventional thinking in order to recover in a sustainable way from Hurricane Katrina while withstanding a continual threat from rising sea levels, diminishing wetlands and future storms. They stress that the No. 1 priority for Louisiana should be to combat global warming and accelerated sea-level rise.

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An article co-authored by a Tulane scientist examines the role that groundwater plays in eroding the surface of the earth "” a dynamic that could have implications for New Orleans-area levees.

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The loading of carbon dioxide into oceans is a consequence of fossil fuel use that has only begun to be widely recognized as problematic in the past decade. Its subsequent effects on seawater chemistry have the potential to spread ecological disaster to a variety of industries dependent on the seas.

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Advanced materials and new industrial coatings may provide more structurally stable, environmentally sound solutions for manufacturing, shipping and infrastructure.

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During his inaugural address, President Obama spoke plainly about the nation's energy crisis and our reliance on foreign oil: ". . . each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet. Expert believes electric vehicles hold the key to a cleaner, safer, greener future.

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Researchers find great promise in a process that could use solar energy to use hydrogen, the third most abundant element on earth's surface, as the ultimate alternative to fossil fuels. This process increase dramatically the efficiency of titania photoanodes used to convert solar energy into hydrogen in fuel cells.

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New analysis calls into question widespread claims on potential economic, employment and environmental benefits promoted by special interest groups, industry associations and international organizations.

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Salisbury University Physical Plant Director Kevin Mann loves talking trash. That doesn't mean he has any particular opinion about your mother. In fact, if he was to pick a fight, his opener might be, "Your momma's so sustainable"¦ ." The trash Mann enjoys discussing is the kind that ends up in landfills"”and his main interest is keeping what he can out of them.

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Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, architect of the "Pickens Plan" to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, is the keynote speaker for a statewide Energy Summit hosted by the University of Missouri's four campuses April 22-23 in Columbia.

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Intensive monitoring of air quality near a major highway intersection could reveal a lot about how the air outside affects the air in our indoor environment.

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In mid-March, drilling by paleoclimatologists to retrieve sediment and meteorite-impact rocks from remotest Siberia reached about 213 feet (65 m), about 1 million years into the past. They hope to retrieve the longest continuous climate data ever collected for the Arctic, over 3.6 million years.