We had one last semester and it was so phenomenal that we decided to keep it a going.

Thats right. SEA is working in conjunction with Chartwells and Facilities Management.

October 8, 11:30-2 in the Commons Breezeway!

We are so excited and hope that you will enjoy the market!

Check us out on facebook, UMBC Students for Environmental Awareness.

Also, feel free to join our weekly meetings, Mondays, Pub 204

E-mail sea-officers-fall2010@googlegroups.com with any questions

Hope the first few weeks of class aren’t treating you too badly.

We just wanted to remind everybody …

keep your eyes open for upcoming events, including…. UMBC Amazing Race!

Come and meet the members of SEA, and race around campus with your friends! Come out with a buddy, and race with them, or even by yourself, and we’ll hook you up with a teammate! The event is environmentally themed, so you’ll be able to see all of the eco-resources on campus, while exploring your campus! Freshman, you don’t want to miss this! This is our first event of the year, and is sure to be a blast! Prizes will be awarded!  Think you’ve got what it takes to win?

Questions? Email mtuck1@umbc.edu!

The Drum Circle is performing at Teavolve in downtown Baltimore. The event begins at 8 pm, so we will be carpooling from the Commons Circle at 7 pm sharp – please feel free to contact us (or just show up) if you’d like to come, need a ride, have questions, etc.

Teavolve www.teavolve.com delicious paninis, bubble tea, and even tea infused marteanis

Whether you are an involved member, a casual member, or a new face, we hope to see you there!

Until then, love, peace, and bicycle grease

*This Sunday, 5/1* is the Garlic Mustard Challenge, from around 12:30-5 PM. Invasive species cleanup competition, defeating girl scouts, and a garlic mustard themed cooking competition! A signup sheet was passed around today. If you still want to come, send an email with your cell phone number & whether you can provide rides.

*This Wednesday, 4/28, at noon* we’re having one last EcoFest meeting in the student orgs space to make sure we end things with good notes & clarification. Mary promises to bring food.

*Next Wednesday, 5/5* we have space reserved for another PLANT SALE just in time form Mother’s Day (May 9)! We still need to to some PLANTING / POT DECORATING; sounds like *this Thursday* will be a good time to do that.
Bring Becca recyclables to make into pots or mugs to plant in! Everything helps. e-mail Becca Reeves at rebecca.reeves.88@gmail.com

*Early elections for Vice President & VP of Advocacy!* Official 2 weeks’ notice: Since Brandon & Jon are moving on after this semester, two positions are opening up… IF YOU WANT TO RUN for either Vice President or VP of Advocacy, *email Mary by next week’s meeting*. mnorell1@umbc.edu

Morning:
Event: Recycle Box Decoration and Distribution, Electronics Recycling and Invasive Plant Removal
Time/Location: 11:00AM – 2:00PM on the Terrace
Facilities management is coming to you! Recycling seems to be a burden and an extra step for us to take that we don’t always have time for when trying to be good stewards of our environment. Our goal is to make recycling easy and fun! Bring all your electronics to one location where we will take care of it. You can also pick up a decorated box for your own room to make recycling easier. This is a bin that can be taken out with the trash but emptied into the recycling bins instead of the trash rooms.

TUESDAY, April 20

Morning
Event: FREE Store and Plant Sale!
Time/Location: 11:00AM – 2:00PM on the Terrace
SEA is providing you with free stuff! Come to the free store to get what you may want or need. We have collected items that students no longer want and are willing to give away. This is a wonderful way to re-use resources. Instead of purchasing something new, come to our store. At the same time SEA is selling plants and herbs in small cups that you can put on your windowsill. Start your own herb garden!

WEDNESDAY, April 21

Event: The First UMBC Farmer’s Market
Time/Location: 11:00AM – 2:00PM on the Terrace
Chartwells and SEA have invited local farmers to bring their produce to campus! Do you need groceries? Do you lack a meal plan? Come to purchase seasonal food items and support our local farms. If the farmers receive a lot of support, Charwells is in support of UMBC having a long-term farmer’s market program on campus! Please come and enjoy! This event is CASH ONLY.
For more information, visit the farmer’s market facebook event page:http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109934745694187&ref=mf

THURSDAY, April 22
Event: Organic T-shirt sale!!
Time/Location: 11:00AM – 2:00PM on the Terrace
Come to purchase t-shirts with unique designs on them that are made from organic materials! They’re environment friendly and help support SEA!

FRIDAY, April 23

Event: FAIR for Earth Week!
Time/Location: 11:00AM – 12:00PM on Main Street
Come to learn about what UMBC is doing to be green! Find out what courses at UMBC address environmental issues and sustainability and what courses will be offered next semester! There will be information about green jobs, local businesses, organic food, and more!!!

Evening:
Event: Captain Planet Costume Party and Bands!
Time/Location: 6-9:30 PM in the Harbor Courtyard and Harbor Multipurpose room
Come out to eat organic home cooked food and to watch the captain planet show with SEA! There will be an outdoor band playing, prizes and more!

Who: Hosted by Students for Environmental Awareness- all students are welcome to attend

What: A very fun, very muddy marsh cleanup

When: April 10 from 8:30 am to around 4 pm

Where: meet at the Commons Loop to carpool to Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary 1361 Wrighton Road, Lothian, MD 20711

Why: for fun! And to learn more about and help care for our wetlands!

How: (Here’s the really important part!) email or call Mary Norell (MaryNorell2@gmail.com or 301-786-6694) by the Wednesday beforehand afternoon if you want to come!

Details for Saturday’s Clean Up

• Now with extra mud¹. Needless to say it has been a very wet spring. Things a a bit soggy and there are lots of puddles/vernal pools in the woods. Great news for amphibians. One of the trails from last year’s amphibian hike is now under knee deep water.  The largest vernal pool where we are doing research is certainly larger than a football field with a maximum depth of 95 cm which is incredible.
• Special area for SEA to clean up J
• Some hip boots and chest waders available.
• Rain or shine.
• Continued search and rescue mission for Harry (or Harriet) the hedgehog who was rescued and then lost in the marsh in April 2009.

¹ If you do not find enough mud during the clean up, we can solve that problem by following the route of the summer camp marsh walk, which, of course, is the muddiest area at Jug Bay.

What to take for the Clean Up

• Clothing that will almost certainly get muddy.
• Take your own waders if you have them or can borrow them. Alternate footwear if planning to use Jug Bay waders in case they are not available.
• Heavy socks if you think the borrowed boots might be a bit large because large boots in deep mud is combination that does not work well (foot pulls out of boot, not boot out of mud). Hip boots/waders from Jug Bay tend to be mostly men’s medium sizes and larger with few small sizes.
• Towel, complete change of clothing (and shoes?) for the ride home
• Long pants (with belt if using hip boots), long sleeves (plants can be scratchy), hat, sun screen.
• Lunch  that we may eat at the clean up site.
• Water bottle
• They will provide work gloves, but if you plan to get out in the deeper mud, rubber gloves work a lot better if (when) you lose your balance or need to put your hands on the mud surface to get un-stuck.
• Rain jacket (If the weather is bad, or you plan to splash around or are klutzy) But more seriously, the clean up area is out in the marsh where there is no shelter and it could take awhile to get back if it starts raining while you are in the marsh.)  There are some rain jackets available at Jug Bay if needed. As some SEA members discovered last year, not all jackets advertised as water repellant are truly useful for being outside for several hours in the rain.

Email Dr. Campbell (jcampbel@umbc.edu) for questions about Jug Bay or SEA leaders for trip logistics.  www.jugbay.org describes the location.

DIRECTIONS TO JUG BAY

Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary (JBWS) is on the eastern side of the Patuxent River in Anne Arundel County. Do not confuse it with the Jug Bay portion of Patuxent River Park which is on the other side of the river in PG County.

To add to the complexity, the Glendening Nature Preserve (GNP) is property adjacent to and part of JBWS. The marsh clean up meets at the visitor center on the main JBWS property.  For the “overnight amphibian monitoring,” on Friday night meet at the Plummer House, a renovated historic house on the GNP property.  JBWS is located off Rt 4 east of the DC Beltway.  Depending upon traffic, there are two ways to get there:

Little Traffic (probably Saturday morning)

As long as there are no major traffic problems en route, the fastest way is to take 95 south to the inner loop of the DC Beltway to Ext 11A, Route 4 (east / south). Continue east/south on Rt 4 past Route 301 and follow the directions below.

From intersection of Rt 301 and Rt 4:

Go east/south on Rt. 4 for 3 miles (1.5 miles after crossing over the Patuxent River) to the “Plummer Lane” exit on right. Bear left at first intersection (right after the exit) to stay on Plummer.

To JBWS Visitor Center

Follow Plummer Lane past the Plummer House driveway for 1/2 mile to Wrighton Road. Turn right on Wrighton Rd. On Wrighton, you will pass another (labeled) Glendenning Nature Preserve entrance on the right (there is only a sign and a parking area so it would be easy to miss it.) You will also pass a “Pop’s Pleasure” sign on the left that is apparently the name of a farm or house.  Turn left onto the dirt road with the wooden Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary sign (it is a half mile from the Plummer Lane-Wrighton Road intersection). The road is between two fields (farm). Continue to the parking lot at the end of the road. Go to the building that looks like a visitor’s center, not the one that looks like (and is) a private house.

When leaving Jug Bay, you cannot directly go West on Rt 4 from Plummer Lane to head home. The solution is to turn left just before you get to Rt 4 (the same intersection where I told you to bear left when you were arriving, just past the Plummer House driveway on the way home) which will put you on a service road parallel to Rt 4. You will pass a few small stores on the left. You will also encounter a ramp to Rt 4 that also only goes East, so ignore it. Eventually the road comes to an overpass that will take you over Rt 4 and you then turn left onto Rt 4 West.  (There is also a gas station/convenience store at that corner.)  (FYI, on the way to Jug Bay, any of the exits from Rt 4 after the bridge lead to this service road, so if you get off Rt 4 too early by mistake, you can recover by following the service road it to Plummer Lane and turning right).

Alternative: Neither MapQuest or Google Maps give proper directions to the visitor center at 1361 Wrighton Road, Lothian, MD 2071, so I suspect that GPS navigation systems will not be correct either. If lost, you can call them at 410-741-9330

We have finally gotten support to open a farmers market on campus – CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!? Having inexpensive, fresh, local produce will be an incredible asset to the university community. This is a trial run, so we need to show our support and purchase produce on this day so that the farmers will be encouraged to return to umbc

Look out for the events of EcoFest 2010 – which will be posted very soon

But, for now, the farmers market will premiere on Wednesday 21 in or around the Commons from 11-2

Congratulations to all the people who have been supporting nutrition and environmental advocacy for the past few years. Without your foundation we could have never had the chance.

Thanks for your interest and feel free to let me know if you have any more questions

Student wins Idea competition with plans for an on-campus produce stand called “The Green Bean”

By Chris Cook
Contributing Writer

Junior mechanical engineering major Mariano Mumpower came away with a $750 gift certificate to Amazon.com for winning November 19th’s Idea Competition Finalists Review. His idea? To bring healthy, fresh, quality, and affordable daily dining options to UMBC through a project he called “The Green Bean.” The selection was met with applause from the standing-room only crowd at The Commons Sports Zone during the two-hour event’s conclusion.

Mumpower conceptualized “The Green Bean” as a repainted, refurbished, and redesigned old school bus turned mobile organic produce stand. His presentation explained that his project would incorporate the concepts of using sustainable energy and providing seasonal menus, in addition to other things. He identified four main advantages of his idea: innovation, sustainability, benefit to the local community, and convenience. “I feel great,” he said shortly after he was announced as the winner. “I’m glad I was able to get my message across.”

He cited ice cream trucks and produce stands that are common in other countries as the main inspirations for his idea. “I like the thought of bringing produce directly to the community,” he said. He attributed the success of his project to its involvement with the health and green movements that are gaining larger followings throughout the country. “If students have just a little bit of time before class, [the Green Bean can] give students an option to have a healthy meal,” he said. He believes that students will value a healthier alternative to The Commons and a quicker alternative to the Dining Hall.

Global warming all hot air? Obama pushes full speed ahead at Copenhagen summit

By Courtney Ring
Senior Staff Writer

The escalating Internet hubbub over the e-mails released from Great Britain’s Climate Research Unit in East Anglia has been matched by near silence in the mass media. Why is that? Is it because these e-mails have the potential to force us to rethink the entire global warming scenario in several different ways?

The first thing to think about is the information on which the global warming platform is founded. The research from the Climate Research Unit was one of the four major sources relied on by the pivotal United Nations report dealing with man-caused global warming. If that information proves to be faulty, it calls into question the conclusions of the rest of the report. Tellingly, the e-mails mention frustration at not finding evidence for global warming to back up the predictions of models. One e-mail reads, “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.

The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate.” Usually, when the data isn’t there, it’s standard procedure to allow that the theory might be wrong-not automatically assume that the problem resides in the data.

The second thing to reconsider would be the policy response of the United States and the rest of the world. The timing of the documents’ release comes just before the December 9 United Nations summit on global warming in Copenhagen, a summit that hoped to secure promises for sweeping cuts in carbon emissions.

This move promises to be highly expensive, making it particularly onerous for economies struggling to shake off the torpor of recession. Before agreeing to anything, representatives from the countries involved would do well to take a hard look at whether or not they’re potentially hurting their industries for the sake of tilting at windmills.

Third, we would have to re-think how the information about the global warming theory was disseminated. The e-mails hint at tampering with data, including requests to delete e-mails about the United Nations report, threats to keep a dissenting report out of a paper even if “we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is” and to put pressure on journals to keep dissenting voices out of accredited journals. The defense offered has been that scientists, according to Dr.Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University, “speak in a language they understand and is often foreign to the outside world.” Agreed, but how difficult is it to understand the following e-mail, sent after one journal published several articles by dissenters: “I think we have to stop considering “Climate Research” as a legitimate peer-reviewed journal. Perhaps we should encourage our colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit to, or cite papers in, this journal. We would also need to consider what we tell or request of our more reasonable colleagues who currently sit on the editorial board.”

With so much money involved and the sweeping social changes envisioned by proponents of this theory, the facts had better be correct! But if people are not allowed to test the facts for themselves, and to dispute the conclusions, then there’s no way of telling what course of action is actually appropriate, potentially wasting time and resources.

This leads back to the original question: Why aren’t more people in positions of power publicly investigating this issue to find out the truth? President Obama is still planning to appear at the Copenhagen Summit to promise heavy cuts in carbon emissions. The situation is a bit like being on a high-speed train headed for a tall trestle over a fast-flowing river. Someone has raised a red flag to indicate danger on the tracks ahead. So, why aren’t more people slowing the train down in order to see what’s actually happening on the tracks before proceeding? As a society, are we so wedded to this theory that we can no longer step back and consider the facts objectively?