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More Stories: The Environment on Campus
International Relations and Environmental Decision
Making Katie Huston for TEI
New Processing Technologies
for Biomass Production Katie Huston for TEI
Understanding the Causes and Implications of Climate ChangeKatie Huston for TEI
New Techniques for Understanding Relationships Between Aquatic Organisms and Toxic MetalsKatie Maginnis for TEI
Water Protection from Forest
to Faucet
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When
it comes to the environment, Peter M. Haas of the
Department of Political Science is looking at the
big picture. Haas specializes in international relations with a focus
on environmental issues, examining the contributions of various political
actors such as scientists, international organizations, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and the private sector to create effective international
governance. “I’m interested in how environmental threats
are recognized and what contributes to more effective collective responses
to them,” he says. (
Scientists
and engineers around the globe are searching for solutions to global
warming and dependence on foreign oil and rising fuel prices. George
Huber, assistant professor of Chemical Engineering,
says part of the solution to replacing petroleum oil is cellulosic
biomass. “Everything we use petroleum for, we’ll be using
biomass for in the future,” he says. (
To
understand the causes and implications of climate change, we need to
understand its history, explains Ray Bradley, a University
Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geosciences,
who heads the Climate System Research Center at UMass
Amherst. Bradley specializes in paleoclimatology, the study of climate
change on the scale of Earth’s entire history. “What we’re
trying to do is understand the variability of climate, and how that
relates to where we are today – putting
present climate in long-term perspective in order to better assess the human
effects on the climate system,” he says. (
Most
people who have taken a basic chemistry course are able to point out
the transition metals on the Periodic Table. Still, many
of the most experienced chemists remain puzzled about the changes that
these metals undergo when exposed to natural ligands in aquatic ecosystems. Fortunately, Richard
Vachet, Associate Professor of Chemistry is
shedding some light on the subject. (
Ask Paul
Barten how much we spend in the U.S. purifying water each
year, and he’ll tell you, “More than we need to spend.” That’s
why Barten, an associate professor in the department of Natural
Resources and Conservation, and his students are developing
new mapping methods to protect public water supplies from pollution
associated with land use. “If you focus on avoiding and preventing
pollution, you can substantially reduce water treatment costs,” he
says. (
Computer
scientists often sit behind their desks, but Associate Professors Brian
Levine and Mark Corner in the deparment of Computer
Science are getting out of their offices and into nature.
They’re applying their work with Disruption Tolerant Networking
(DTN) to environmental problems, including monitoring underwater environments
and tracking wildlife.
When
talking about climate change, we often tend to overlook one of its
most important and immediate effects, says Christine Rogers:
its effect on health. Rogers, an Assistant Professor in
the department of Public Health, is an aerobiologist,
which means she studies airborne biological material. In particular,
she’s focusing on how global warming affects allergens, which
may have huge implications for people who suffer from allergic diseases.
(
In
the U.S., you ’d be hard pressed to find an elephant outside
of a zoo. In parts of Africa, though, humans and elephants are increasingly
coming into conflict and competing for land and resources. That’s
one problem that Curt Griffin, a professor in the Department
of Natural Resources and Conservation and Alfred Kikoti,
a doctoral candidate, hope to address by studying elephant population
status, ecology and transboundary movements in northern Botswana and
northern Tanzania. (
As
the 21st century unfolds, the emerging development of nanotechnology
presents considerable benefits to society, as well as risks. Nanoparticles,
that measure 1-100 nanometers (nm) in size, are already being used
for a variety of purposes. For instance, carbon nanotubes have been
considered for use in remediation of toxic chemicals in the environment,
and metal oxide nanoparticles are present in many cosmetics, such as
sunscreen and shampoo. As this technology develops, however, the need
for information concerning the potential damages caused by nanoparticles
becomes increasingly important.
Once
considered ‘America’s Hardest Working River’ due
to the number of mills utilizing the hydraulic energy produced along
the river, the 475 square mile Blackstone River watershed in central
Massachusetts and northern Rhode Island contributes the majority
of flow and nutrients emptying into Narragansett Bay. Designated
an American Heritage River by EPA in 1998, the Blackstone River is
at risk from pollution from agricultural runoff, public and private
municipal water treatment facilities, and development impairing both
the hydrology and the ecology of the river and bay system. Paula
Rees, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
and Interim Director of the MA Water Resources Research Center, has
been conducting field research to monitor, assess, and model the
river system since 2001. 
Housing
high concentrations of people, cities often develop negative reputations
associated with traits such as traffic jams, high crime rates, and
fewer green spaces. However, Professor Paige Warren in the Department
of Natural Resource Conservaton has a plan to shape urban areas into
more pleasant habitats for both humans and wildlife. As Warren
suggests, “people need access to nature. They need nature
in their daily lives. They need wildness around them.” How
does one create a sense of “wildness” in areas that are
so highly populated with humans already? By studying the relationships
between human activities and wildlife populations, Warren hopes to
improve the ecosystem functioning of cities, so that biodiversity within
them may increase. 
In
2007, the American Cancer Society estimates that more than 180,000
new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed this year. To date, it
is the second most deadly cancer in women, next to lung cancer.Fortunately,
breast cancer research is nearly as prolific as the cancer itself. Dr.
Kathleen Arcaro, Assistant Professor of Environmental Toxicology at
the University of Massachusetts Amherst has recently received $100,000
in funding from Avon to study the correlation between breast cancer
risk and early pregnancy by examining the cells in breast milk.
For
thousands of years, ethanol, a type of alcohol derived from microbial
consumption of fruits and grains, has been created by brewers of beer.
In the recent past, ethanol derived from corn has been added to gasoline
to replace a toxin harmful to the environment. And now, with new research
conducted by Dr. Susan Leschine and her team of researchers at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst, it is only a matter of time before
ethanol from whole plants is available as a source of fuel. (
The
University of Massachusetts Amherst chapter of Engineers without Borders
spent two and a half weeks of the winter session break in Kenya collecting
data and starting preliminary work on their water system improvement
plan. The group, which was founded in January of 2006, includes more
than twenty university students who have an interest in working to
improve the lives of others through engineering and economic development.
(
A new student group called Students for Environmental Awareness and
Action, or SEAA, is making its presence known on the University of
Massachusetts Amherst campus.
UMass faculty members whose research and professional work have led them into the realm of food systems and food science
co-hosted The Environmental Institute's Food Systems Lecture Series. (
The
environmentally conscious community on the University of Massachusetts
Amherst Campus is rallying around the environmental movement known
as “sustainability.” Born from the failure of linear, non-renewable
systems of human and resource consumption, sustainability emphasizes
a circular or “holistic” way of thinking. According to
a proposal put fourth to the University by special topics class PLSOIL
297S in the spring of 2002, sustainability can be defined as follows:
(
