Kristen Mercer of the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science in our college will present “Challenges for Crop Landraces in an Era of Climate Change: The Case of Maize in Mexico” tomorrow (11/29) in Columbus and by video link in Wooster. She spoke on the topic recently at EcoSummit 2012. Related posts here and here.
Month: November 2012
Study: How cities can be energy self-reliant
Cleveland and cities like it could get all their energy from local renewable sources, says a recent OARDC study. Doing this, the study’s authors say, would create new jobs, keep millions in the cities’ economies, and benefit the environment. Read the story.
Nov. 27: Climate change program in Columbus
Columbus welcomes author and Middlebury College (Vt.) professor Bill McKibben, pictured, and his cross-country “Do the Math” tour this Tuesday (11/27) for what’s billed as a “unique and interactive” program on climate change and green energy. Introductory speakers include Jason Box of Ohio State’s world-famous Byrd Polar Research Center (College of Arts and Sciences).
Nov. 27: See 450-plus examples of student environmental science projects
Students in the School of Environment and Natural Resources’ “Introduction to Environmental Science” class will present more than 450 posters on their work in a special program this Tuesday (11/27). Free and open to the public.
Necessary celebration: Waste, zero; Michigan, zero?
Going to the Ohio State-Michigan game Saturday (11/24)? You and more than 100,000 others will throw in on a “new standard for collegiate stadium recycling.” This is very cool.
Game day forecast: Light, northerly winds
In the interest of full disclosure and not getting olfactorily smug, OSU Extension’s own Ohio Trees bulletin describes the bark of the Ohio buckeye as “ill-smelling when bruised.” And the National Arbor Day Foundation says, “Ohio buckeye is seldom used as a street tree because of the odor it produces when damaged, giving it the popular name of fetid buckeye.”
Scouting report: Time for the hurry-up offense
Also from the University of Michigan’s candidly forthright Animal Diversity Web: “(Male wolverines) fiercely defend their territory by marking it with scent from their anal gland.” Related post.
Now THAT’S tactile learning
Stone Lab, which is Ohio State’s island campus at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie and part of CFAES, has announced its 2013 summer science courses. They’re for college students, advanced high-school students, and educators. Check out the list if you want to dive (sometimes literally) into learning about the environment and do it in a hands-on way — in the lab and in the field and also in the water. Download an application here.
All that you do leave behind
A lot goes into your Thanksgiving turkey. And a lot comes out. Taking good care of the latter, an earthy practice to be sure, is a key to sustainability — of the farm and the environment around it. OSU Extension, CFAES’s statewide outreach arm, has the details.
Coming to Columbus. Then chasing another long kickoff return
In honor of Saturday’s Ohio State-Michigan football game, meet our worthy opponent, which is a great big member of the weasel family. (Courtesy of that school up north’s very own and very informative Animal Diversity Web, coincidentally.)