Career Fair: Be there or square!

These are the organizations that are recruiting today. Many thanks to the CRC for all the great work on a great Fair.

· A.C. Parsons Landscaping & Garden Center
· Acadia National Park
· Adventure Links
· Appalachian Mountain Club
· Avian Haven
· Bangor YMCA Camp Jordan
· Bartlett Tree Expert Company
· Baxter State Park
· Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance
· Belknap Landscape Co. Inc.
· Biodiversity Research Institute
· Brunswick Police Department
· Camp Arcadia
· Camp CaPella/United Cerebral Palsy of Northeastern Maine
· Camp Hazen YMCA
· Camp Susan Curtis, The Susan L. Curtis Foundation
· Cherryfield Foods
· Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery
· E.E. Just Environmental Leadership Institute
· Earth Tones Native Plant Nursery & Landscapes
· Eckerd Youth Alternatives
· Elliotsville Plantation Inc
· Expanding Opportunities - Camp Forest
· Ferry Beach Ecology School
· Fieldstone Gardens Inc
· Freedom Farm
· Friends Camp
· Good Will-Hinckley School
· Great Pond Outdoor Adventure Center
· Hart-to-Hart Farm
· Humane Society, Cape Wildlife Center
· Lake George Regional Park
· LL Bean Outdoor Discovery School
· Loki Clan Wolf Refuge
· Longacre Expeditions
· Lucas Tree Experts
· Maine Army National Guard
· Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, Holbrook Island Sanctuary
· Maine Conservation School
· Maine Department of Conservation, Maine Forest Ser­vice
· Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, Fisher­ies and Hatcheries Division
· Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, Bureau of Resource Management
· Maine Department of Marine Resources - Aquarium
· Maine Department of Marine Resources - Bureau of Sea Run Fisheries and Habitat
· Maine High Adventure, BSA
· Maine Lakes Conservancy Institute
· Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association
· Maine Warden Service
· Maine Warden Service, Bangor
· Maria Mitchell Association
· Massachusetts Audubon Society-Wildwood
· Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation
· Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recrea­tion/ Bureau of Ranger Services
· Massachusetts Environmental Police
· McLaughlin Foundation Garden & Horticultural Center 1
· Medomak Camp
· Muskie School of Public Service/ University of Southern Maine
· National Marine Fisheries Service
· New England Organics
· New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development
· New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, Law En­forcement Division
· New Horizons for Young Women
· New Jersey Division, Fish & Wildlife, Bureau of Law En­forcement
· North Country Rivers
· Northwoods Stewardship Center
· Oswegatchie Educational Center
· Pine Tree Camp
· Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust/ Eco Venture
· Rippleffect
· Saco Parks & Recreation Department
· Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary
· Summit Achievement
· The Care of Trees
· The Summer Camp
· Thompson Island Outward Bound
· Unity College, Summer Programs, NOVA
· Unity Environmental Education Semester at Camp Susan Curtis
· University of New Hampshire 4-H Camps
· URS Corp
· US Army Corps of Engineers
· US Customs and Boarder Protection
· US Department of Agriculture, APHIS, Wildlife Services
· US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, White Mountain National Forest
· US Department of Agriculture, National Resource Con­servation Service
· US Department of Interior Fish & Wildlife Service, Rachel Carson NWR
· US Department of the Interior Fish & Wildlife Service, Maine Coastal Islands NWR, · · Petit Manan National Wild­life Refuge
· US Fish and Wildlife Service
· Vermont Youth Conservation Corps
· W. Alton Jones Environmental Education Center
· Waldo County Sheriff Department
· Waldo County Soil & Water Conservation District
· Waldo County YMCA
· Wolfe’s Neck Farm
· Zoo New England

Tipping points: conference report from the Guardian

Ice boulders left behind after a flood caused by the overflowing of a lake in Greenland. Photograph: Uriel Sinai/Getty images


I have to say that I think Mr. Sample, normally one of the better climate science journalists out there, mis-interpreted the science in this report of a conference held last week. The Guardian makes it seem like these nine areas themselves are the ones most at risk from the tipping points. In reality, the whole planet will be affected by any one of the nine, and no-one can safely predict how any two or three or four of them will work together in the system if more than one is involved.

But here it is. Read it and weep.

Global meltdown: scientists isolate areas most at risk of climate change
ming are spelled out

Ian Sample, science correspondent
The Guardian,
Tuesday February 5 2008


Scientists have long agreed that climate change could have a profound impact on the planet; from melting ice sheets and withering rainforests, to flash floods and droughts.

Now a team of climate experts has ranked the most fragile and vulnerable regions on the planet, and warned they are in danger of sudden and catastrophic collapse before the end of the century.

Recyclemania update

I just posted our first week's data for Recyclemania. Thanks to Keith and Sarah, the CRAP Crew, Ray Stuart, the Compost Crew, Aimee Sawwyer, Marcy Rose and everyone else who helped us with our competition numbers.

You can see the results at http://www.recyclemaniacs.org

So far, so good. We have pretty high numbers for the per capita paper and food waste recycling, compared to other colleges. So for instance, Unity recycled 3.9 pounds per person of paper, compared to Green Mountain College's 2.7 pounds per person of paper (in 2007 -- they haven't posted a 2008 number yet). I chose this comparison school because they are the college most like us that reported a recycled paper number. Other colleges seem to do quite a bit worse. Check it out at the web site.

We still have some bugs to work out. The trash quantities are given to us monthly by Bolsters, so many yards at 200 pounds per yard, but the dates are of course a month behind, so our trash numbers will lag our recycling numbers by a month.

I'm still working with Bolster's on getting a number for the weight of cardboard recycling.

And we haven't got a number for the weight of cans and bottles. This is probably because these are deposited, and so someone takes them to the redemption center, not to the transfer station. If anyone has an idea how to get a number for this, let me know ASAP.

Mick

Update: Turns out the deposited cans and bottles are collected by two groups: The RAs, for their pizza fund no doubt, and the CRAP Crew, who fish some out of regular recycling when the RAs don't get them, and get the rest from the non-residence hall recycle stations. Sarah is going to weigh the latter. Steve has been asked to count the former, and then we will find a conversion factor.

From Amy Arnett: Cool Demonstration Farm

Hi Mick,
I don't know if you remember my friend Amy Seidl coming to talk a few years back about climate change (she has a book coming out soon on the topic) -- but she is Associate Director of LivingFuture, which is based on Teal Farm in Vermont.

Might be an interesting place for your students to see what money can do regarding sustainable ag/energy. The farm is meant to be a model of complete sustainable energy and a working research farm.

Thought you might be interested.

Check out the YouTube segment on the link below.

Amy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyywfrAT1S0

Local schools save energy, climate emissions and money

The old economic adage that you don't leave $100 bills lying on the ground has applied to energy savings for some time, but I have seen a lot that haven't been picked up because corporate and other institution managers somehow still manage to walk around thinking energy is still cheap.

Looks like the State o' Maine school system is at least beginning to pick a few up.

VASSALBORO: School takes energy steps
Efficiency upgrade investment touted


By Morning Sentinel Staff

If you are a non-profit or local government institution and need to do an energy audit, but think you can't afford it, Unity students can do it for you. Just contact me at mwomersley@unity.edu

Opposition to windfarm on the Isle of Lewis and Highlands research

Guardian picture: Lewis wind farm

Some readers may know I did my MS research on the history of economic development programs in the Highlands and Islands (including an analysis of their ecological sustainability), so I try to stay in touch. I also served there while in the military. I've particularly been watching the wind business because it's a few years, but only a few years, ahead of Maine's. The kinds of things happening there will soon happen here. There's a lot of wind in the Western Isles, and planned development of this resource makes sense. But not everyone feels the same way. The high level of local opposition to this particular wind farm surprised me. I expected some, but not as much as this article describes.

On reflection, perhaps the Lewis wind farm and similar proposals represent another "colonial" scheme for the Highlands, in that most of the product and profit would almost certainly exit the area. This seems a reasonable prediction because the scale guarantees largely "foreign" investors will be involved. In this case the scheme drew considerable opposition even though large annual payments were guaranteed to local folk. Smaller, locally-supported and financed schemes might fare better politically.

The history of the Highlands since the mid 1700s is that they have repeatedly featured large in the economic development (and social engineering) notions of folks from "away," while the local voice has generally been politically muted (although not always, and much less so recently).

Highlanders systematically found it difficult to develop their economy without external ideas and capital; but unless programs are accepted locally, the tendency has been for them to eventually collapse, after a short and disruptive lifespan.

The area is littered with the remains of failed schemes.

Lewis, on the other hand, was insulated from this for many years by the indigenous development of a premium-market, cottage-based, tweed-weaving industry which survives to this day, and by its strict Presbyterian religious life. But those are other stories.

There are lots of interesting Highland development stories.

Mainers might well learn something from Highland development history. Maine is also quite well-sprinkled with failed industrial schemes. And it has similar ecology.

Some other Unity College academics and myself are taking a Highlands research trip soon, to visit the site of a very dramatic new scheme: a private "wilderness" reserve with huge implications for Highland ecology.

Briefly, one aspect of the current Highland land system, first detailed scientifically by the famous ecologist Sir Frank Fraser Darling, is systematic overgrazing by sheep and red deer, which has led to forest suppression. The landscape would otherwise look a lot like Maine, albeit with lower tree-line, but instead it's quite bare of trees except where they are protected by fence or steep ground. The photo above is an example. The reintroduction of predators on red deer such as wolf and brown bear, extinct for centuries, would promote regeneration of forest cover by controlling deer populations.

Such a reintroduction, however, would very threatening to Highland crofters and farmers, who don't generally keep their sheep fenced and sheltered from predators as we do here in Maine. The tendency is to believe (what Mainers know to be false) that you can't farm sheep in the presence of ursid and canid predators. But it is nevertheless, a very scary thought.

The big bad wolf. And you can see from the Lewis case how politically powerful Highlanders can be when organized and upset.

I'm quite excited about the trip as I haven't been to the Highlands for a few years. Expect some posts and pictures, and a slide lecture on our return. In the meantime, as I work a little harder to update my Highlands knowledge and research, I'll post some of the more interesting sustainability-related Highland development articles I find here.

Here's the wind farm article.

Plan B 3.0 and APM sustainability site

Here are two useful sustainability resources:

1) _Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization_, a new book by Lester Brown. The entire book is available FREE as a pdf here.

Brown is director of the Earth Policy Institute and long known as one of the world's leading environmental thinkers. This book examines the environmental threats facing our people and planet, and proposes radical changes toward sustainability. Did I mention that it's FREE?!


2) American Public Media maintains a sustainability web site.

The site includes sustainability stories gathered from the APM family of radio programs (e.g. Marketplace, Weekend America, Speaking of Faith, American RadioWorks) and other sources; web-exclusive material, including blogs, multimedia stories and interactive features like Consumer Consequences, a game where visitors can calculate their impacts on the planet.

The site "aims to become a forum for the whole range of perspectives on sustainability" and to "be a vehicle to help us find not only experts to inform our journalism, but people with practical knowledge of sustainability issues from their own lives, jobs, and families."

In particular, check out the 'Greenwash Brigade' blog. Its writers are "environmental professionals on the hunt for 'greenwash'," examining "eco-friendly claims by companies, governments and other groups," and asking "tough questions about the mainstreaming of green."