The report includes a brief citation to our presentation during the American Society of Engineering Education in Austin, TX.

June 14-17, 2009 – Drexel Smart House and Drexel University’s Library presented a collaborative proposal for information-literacy development to the American Society of Engineering Education in Austin, TX.

See: Drexel Smart House Six Month Report and News and Interests from Drexel Green web site

Third place went to Jameson Detweiler and Tom Milewski, who are students in the Drexel College of Engineering. They will receive $4,000 in seed money, more than $6,500 in in-kind support, and space in the Baiada Center’s incubator. Detweiler and Milewski are the brains behind Konnect.me, which is developing Web communities for specific industries. Its first site is green.konnect.me and serves the green building industry.

Read the full article at: Baiada Incubator winners

The Student Life Symposium on Sustainability and Social Justice hosted by the Division of Student Life Professional Development, Sustainability and Social Justice Committees will be held on Tuesday, May 12, 2009, from 11:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in Behrakis Grand Hall, Creese Student Center (32nd and Chestnut Streets).

See: Student Life Symposium on Sustainability and Social Justice

GREENING OF DREXEL LIBRARIES
Drexel Libraries has begun efforts to make our libraries more environmentally-friendly. In addition a physical archive of vegetable and flower seeds is being created. The Libraries’ Greening Blog is used track our progress, broadcast local environmental news and events, and provides regular tips for greener living. An online Environmental Research Guide offers direction on search strategies, books, databases, reliable websites and blogs offering information on environmental sustainability.

Click here to download the Greening of Drexel Libraries poster highlighting some of its initiatives.

Source: Drexel Green – Resources

Screening of Planet Earth Date: Earth Day April 22, 2009 Time: 10AM-6PM Location: Hagerty Library Room L33 Each Episode Beginning on the Hour Snacks and Earth Day treats provided

1. “From Pole to Pole” (10am)

The first episode illustrates a ‘journey’ around the globe and reveals the effect of gradual climatic change and seasonal transitions en route. During Antarctica’s winter, emperor penguins endure four months of darkness, with no food, in temperatures of −70 °C (−94.0 °F). Meanwhile, as spring arrives in the Arctic, polar bear cubs take their first steps into a world of rapidly thawing ice.

2. “Mountains” (11am)

All the main mountain ranges are explored with extensive aerial photography. Ethiopia’s Erta Ale is the longest continually erupting volcano — for over 100 years. The Andes have the most volatile weather and guanacos are shown enduring a flash blizzard, along with an exceptional group sighting of the normally solitary puma. The Alpine summits are always snow-covered, apart from that of the Matterhorn, which is too sheer to allow it to settle. Grizzly bear cubs emerge from their den for the first time in the Rockies, while Himalayan inhabitants include rutting markhor, golden eagles that hunt migrating demoiselle cranes, and the rare snow leopard.

3. “Fresh Water” (12noon)

The fresh water program describes the course taken by rivers and some of the species that take advantage of such a habitat. Only 3% of the world’s water is fresh, yet all life on land is ultimately dependent on it. Its journey begins as a stream in the mountains, illustrated by Venezuela’s Tepui, where there is a tropical downpour almost every day. It then travels hundreds of miles before forming rapids. The erosive nature of rivers is shown by the Grand Canyon, created over five million years by the Colorado River.

4. “Caves” (1pm)

At a depth of 1,300 feet (400 m), Mexico’s Cave of Swallows is Earth’s deepest pit cave freefall drop, allowing entry by skydivers. Its volume could contain New York City’s Empire State Building. Also featured is Borneo’s Deer Cave and Gomantong Cave. Inhabitants of the former include three million wrinkle-lipped bats, which have deposited guano on to an enormous mound. In Gomantong Cave, guano is many metres high and is blanketed with hundreds of thousands of cockroaches and other invertebrates. Also depicted are eyeless, subterranean creatures, such as the Texas blind salamander and (“bizarrely”) a species of crab.

5. “Deserts” (2pm)

This installment features the harsh environment that covers one third of the Earth: the deserts. Due to Siberian winds, Mongolia’s Gobi Desert reaches extremes of temperature like no other, ranging from -40°C to +50°C (-40°F to 122°F). It is home to the rare Bactrian camel, which eats snow to maintain its fluid level and must limit itself to 10 litres (2.6 U.S. gal; 2.2 imp gal) a day if it is not to prove fatal. Africa’s Sahara is the size of the USA, and just one of its severe dust storms could cover the whole of Great Britain. The outcrops shown in Egypt’s White Desert are being inexorably eroded. The biggest dunes (1,000 ft or 300 m high) are to be found in Namibia, while other deserts featured are the Atacama in Chile, the Sonoran in Arizona, and areas of the Australian outback and Utah.

6. “Ice Worlds” (3pm)

The sixth program looks at the regions of the Arctic and Antarctica. The latter contains 90% of the world’s ice, and stays largely deserted until the spring, when visitors arrive to harvest its waters. During summer, a pod of humpback whales hunt krill by creating a spiraling net of bubbles. The onset of winter sees the journey of emperor penguins to their breeding grounds, 100 miles (160 km) inland.

7. “Great Plains” (4pm)

This episode deals with savanna, steppe, tundra, prairie, and looks at the importance and resilience of grasses in such treeless ecosystems. Their vast expanses contain the largest concentration of animal life. On the North American prairie, bison engage in the ritual to establish the dominant males. The Tibetan Plateau is the highest of the plains and despite its relative lack of grass, animals do survive there, including yak and wild ass.

8. “Jungles” (5pm)

Jungles and tropical rainforests occupy only 3% of the land yet are home to over half of the world’s species. New Guinea is inhabited by almost 40 kinds of birds of paradise, which avoid conflict with each other by living in different parts of the island. Figs are a widespread and popular food, and as many as 44 types of bird and monkey have been observed picking from a single tree. The importance of fungi to the rainforest is illustrated by a sequence of them fruiting, including a parasite called cordyceps.

9. “Shallow Seas”

Although shallow seas constitute 8% of the oceans, they contain most marine life. As humpback whales return to breeding grounds in the tropics, a mother and its calf are followed.  The coral reefs of Indonesia are home to the biggest variety of ocean dwellers. The appearance of algae in the spring starts a food chain that leads to an abundant harvest, and sea lions and dusky dolphins are among those taking advantage of it.

10. “Seasonal Forests”

The coniferous and deciduous seasonal woodland habitats are the most extensive forests on Earth. Conifers begin sparsely in the Arctic but soon dominate the land, and the taiga circles the globe, containing a third of all the Earth’s trees. Few creatures can survive the Arctic climate all year round, but the moose and wolverine are exceptions. One thousand miles (1,600 km) to the south, on the Pacific coast of North America, conifers have reached their full potential. Further south still, in the Valdivian forests of Chile, a population of smaller animals exist, including the pudú and the kodkod.

11. “Ocean Deep”

The final installment concentrates on the most unexplored area of the planet: the deep ocean. It begins with a whale shark used as a shield by a shoal of bait fish to protect themselves from yellowfin tuna. There are thought to be around 30,000 undersea volcanoes, some of them taller than Mount Everest. Their sheer cliffs provide anchorage for several corals and sponges. Nearer the surface, the currents that surround these seamounts force nutrients up from below and thus marine life around them is abundant.

The OurEarth.org website began as a simple idea to make it easier for people to find environmental information.  There are outstanding environmental programs, activities, initiatives, ideas, and grassroots efforts across the country but it can be difficult to sort through all of the websites and information available.  As a result, important natural resources, energy savings, and pollutant reductions are lost each and every day, causing unnecessary damage to our planet.

See also ‘Recycling’ for more information and  ‘Recycling Directory’ to locate more details on programs such as Curbside Recycling or Cell Phone Recycling Guide from the U.S. EPA

Drexel Green site provides access to several webcasts/podcasts of presentations conducted at the Mitchell Auditorium, Bossone Research Enterprise Center,  on a variety of topics  including climate change, capitalism and sutainability, science of global warming, and Drexel and its waste.

See: Webcasts/podcasts

Want to help the environment, beautify the UC campus, and get a cool t-shirt for your efforts?  Now’s your chance!

Quoted from Drexel Announcement Mail:
Represent Drexel and celebrate Earth Month by joining University City Green (UC Green) in the first tree planting events of 2009!

UC Green, in cooperation with Drexel Green Events Planning Committee, is currently looking for volunteers to plant over 300 bare root trees in Malcolm X Park and Saunders Park. Each year, UC Green organizes a volunteer tree planting days to enhance public green spaces by contributing thousands of hours in service to the University City community.

Spring 2009 Tree Planting Days are:

* Saturday, April 25th from 9am to 12pm at Malcolm X Park (map)
* Saturday, May 2nd from 9am to 12pm at Saunders Park (map)

Volunteers play an important part in tree planting and tree care projects such as this one! If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Winnie Harris at wharris@ucgreen.org or at 215-573-4684. All volunteers will receive the famous UC Green T-shirts and free lunch!!!

The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineer (ASHRAE) will host a LEED presentation with Mike Witkowski, a distinguished member of the Philadelphia ASHRAE chapter, today, February 25, 2009, from 6 to 7 p.m. in room 240, LeBow Engineering Center (31st and Market Streets).

The event is to help prepare those interested in becoming LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified.

For more information, contact Zachary Smith at zs24@drexel.edu.

Source: Green Topic, Drexel Daily Digest, 2/25/09