May 2, 2023

 Dr. Bullard is an award-winning author of eighteen books that address sustainable development, environmental racism, urban land use, industrial facility siting, community

May 2, 2023

 Dr. Bullard is an award-winning author of eighteen books that address sustainable development, environmental racism, urban land use, industrial facility siting, community reinvestment, housing, transportation, climate justice, disasters, emergency response, and community resilience, smart growth, and regional equity. He is co-founder of the HBCU Climate Change Consortium. His book, Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Quality (Westview Press, 2000), is a standard text in the environmental justice field. He is the former Dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University and is currently Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy and Director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice.

Dr. Bullard was the scheduled honorand and speaker for the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences’ commencement exercises of 2022, but was unable to attend in person. He was awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, in absentia, and his graduate address was read for him, to great acclaim, by Professor Foster. The Graduate School was delighted to join with the Earth Commons to welcome him to campus on April 26th, 2023.

 

...

Join host Jeff Corwin on an exploration of the tantalizing world of turtles! First, Jeff journeys into the wilderness of southern Florida to save gopher tortoises from a land development project that

Join host Jeff Corwin on an exploration of the tantalizing world of turtles! First, Jeff journeys into the wilderness of southern Florida to save gopher tortoises from a land development project that threatens to bury them alive. Jeff uses a massive earth mover to dig up the tortoises from their deep burrows and then relocates them to protected habitat. Next, Jeff dives with endangered green sea turtles off the Atlantic coast to help scientists monitor their delicate population. Later, Jeff travels to his home state of Massachusetts to save a tiny terrapin that lives in the wetland marsh. Video Transcript: Jeff Corwin: Today on Wildlife Nation we're on an adventure across land and sea... Jeff Corwin: 3, 2, 1... Jeff Corwin: To help save turtles. Jeff Corwin: We'll dig deep to rescue gopher tortoises from a coming housing development. Jeff Corwin: Am I correct? Is that a rock or is that a tortoise? Jeff Corwin: We'll go for a dive to gather critical data on green sea turtles. Jeff Corwin: This is just a healthy looking specimen. Jeff Corwin: And we'll discover a nursery like you've never seen before. Jeff Corwin: I found it! Speaker: He found it! Jeff Corwin: Here we go, look at that! Jeff Corwin: I'm Jeff Corwin, and I've teamed up with Defenders of Wildlife to celebrate the awesome creatures of North America and the dedicated conservationists working to protect them. And you're invited to join the adventure. This is Wildlife Nation.

...

This weekend, join host Jeff Corwin on an adventure to the beaches of southern Florida to uncover the challenges facing sea turtles locally and around the world. Working with dedicated

This weekend, join host Jeff Corwin on an adventure to the beaches of southern Florida to uncover the challenges facing sea turtles locally and around the world. Working with dedicated conservationists, Jeff releases baby turtles into the ocean, dives with sea turtle researchers during the night to collect critical data, and he helps a team of biologists care for sick and injured turtles that are ready to return to the ocean. Find out when you can watch the show by checking your local listings! To learn more about the wildlife featured in the episode, visit www.defenders.org/wildlifenation Video Transcript: Jeff Corwin: Today on Wildlife Nation... Speaker 2: "Three, two, one." Jeff Corwin: We're working to protect some of our planet's most ancient and endangered reptiles, the sea turtles. Jeff Corwin: "This is just a healthy looking specimen." Jeff Corwin: We'll rescue precious sea turtle hatchlings fighting against the odds to survive. Elizabeth Fleming: "Did you find one?" Jeff Corwin: "Every sea turtle matters." Jeff Corwin: And we'll help dedicated conservationists bring hope back to the ocean. Jeff Corwin: "My little guy, you can do it. Oh, he's almost there." Jeff Corwin: I'm Jeff Corwin, and I've teamed up with Defenders of Wildlife to celebrate the awesome creatures of North America and the dedicated conservationists working to protect them and you're invited to join the adventure. This is Wildlife Nation.

...

Following the upper and lower limbs of the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation).

Extended descriptive text: Due to large incoming solar radiation in tropical regions, the

Following the upper and lower limbs of the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation).

Extended descriptive text: Due to large incoming solar radiation in tropical regions, the upper layers of the Atlantic Ocean gain heat at low latitudes. Ocean currents are set in motion to re-distribute this heat to higher latitudes, warming up the atmosphere along their path and contributing to mild weather conditions over Europe. 

This corresponds to the upper limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation -  AMOC for short. At high latitudes, the cooled and densified surface waters deepen into the ocean interior and return back south, making up the lower limb of the AMOC

Let us follow the water movement along the AMOC by deploying and tracking particles. The length of the particle trails is proportional to the velocity of the ocean current and their color to the ocean temperature

Vigorous warm currents flow towards North along the western boundary of the Atlantic.

We start off the North Brazil Current, which first breaks up into strongly rotating circular eddies, then feeds the flow into the Caribbean Sea. Away from the boundaries, particle trails are shorter, meaning the velocities are weaker

In the Gulf of Mexico, the current makes a sharp turn into the Florida Straits and ends up in one of the largest current systems in the World: the Gulf Stream. Here, again, energetic eddies can be seen, rotating for a long time around their centers.  

Some of the currents escape the eddies and flow towards east, continuing in the Azores Current and some move towards North.

Further north, the Gulf Stream continues as the weaker, less defined North Atlantic Current. A part of the flow continues to the Nordic Seas then partially recirculates in the subpolar north Atlantic, into the Labrador Sea. 

Along the way, the surface waters lose some of the heat and become cold, therefore dense. In the Labrador Sea, the harsh winter conditions make the surface water even colder and denser, to the point that it is heavier than the water below it and starts to plunge into the deep, in a process called convection. Once at depths around 1000 to 2000 meters, this water mass encounters water of similar densities and begins to flow to the south

We now look only at currents below 2000 meters depth: the so-called Deep Western Boundary Current, which forms the lower limb of AMOC, can be observed starting at the southern tip of Greenland and following the continental slope.

At the exit of the Labrador Sea, it goes around the Flemish Cap and enters the region below the Gulf Stream. The flow in the upper layers is so strong that currents deeper than 2000 m still feel this movement and are entangled into eddies. In contrast, directly at the boundary, currents progress slowly southwards. 

The flow below 2000m south from the Gulf Stream eddy region is mostly confined to the continental slope and follows the bottom topography.

Along the South American continent, the continental slope is interrupted by large underwater promontories, which the Deep Western Boundary Current needs to circumvent. While going around them, meanders and eddies are generated; the flow gets unstable.

One of those regions lies in the southern hemisphere, offshore the Brazilian coast. The flow is disrupted into eddies and from there onwards no longer flows as a well-defined current. The lower limb of the AMOC is from there onwards dominated by ocean eddies.

...

There are over 1,000 native bee species in the state of Arizona. Ranging from the size of an eyelash to larger than a thumb, these beautiful and intriguing creatures are responsible for the majority

There are over 1,000 native bee species in the state of Arizona. Ranging from the size of an eyelash to larger than a thumb, these beautiful and intriguing creatures are responsible for the majority of pollination that happens in wild landscapes, urban gardens, and agricultural fields. Though the relationship between bees and flowers seems elegant, and is essential to the functioning of any ecosystem, it is fraught with all the intricacies and manipulations of a Shakespeare play. In this talk, Dr. Carril will introduce her audience to Arizona's native solitary bees and explore the relationships of these bees with the flowering plants on which they depend –and which depend on them. BIO: Dr. Olivia Carril has been studying native bees for over 25 years. She received her BS and MSc from Utah State University, and a PhD from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. She is the coauthor of three books: The Bees in Your Backyard, a Field Guide to North America's Bees; The Common Bees of Eastern North America; and the soon to be released Common Bees of Western North America. She is currently conducting several large scale surveys of bees throughout the western United States, and studying several rare plants in New Mexico. In her spare time, she teaches science to middle schoolers, and hangs out with her two adorable daughters and her handsome husband.

...

In some circles, Southern Nevada is not known predominately for its casinos and resorts, it is famous for its ability to produce solar energy. Now, with the development of high-capacity energy

In some circles, Southern Nevada is not known predominately for its casinos and resorts, it is famous for its ability to produce solar energy. Now, with the development of high-capacity energy storage, the stakes are even higher. Amy tells the story of solar energy’s rise in importance, but also speaks of the state’s commitment to geothermal and even wind energy. Over the last twenty years Amy Lahav has found her way to contribute towards cleaning up our planet as an environmental and renewable energy jack-of-all-trades, tech interpreter and information seeker. Today, as a senior project manager in the Renewables and Origination Department at NV Energy, Amy has worked to negotiate and procure over 2 gigawatts of some of the world’s most cost-effective solar energy and 690 megawatts of battery energy storage for Nevada’s customers. She has been on the forefront of evaluating new technology establishing the utility’s first non-wires alternative evaluation tool and facilitating partnerships with emerging technology companies to develop collaborative opportunities. Amy is excited to see what the future holds. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

...

With the growth of wildfires in the west, many people are very upset. That includes me. Some of the areas burning are very special to me. But I want to share some biocentric perspectives on fire that

With the growth of wildfires in the west, many people are very upset. That includes me. Some of the areas burning are very special to me. But I want to share some biocentric perspectives on fire that are often missing. First, as I say in this video, fires are mainly driven by climate, not fuels. That means that forest thinning and prescribed burns are, at a landscape scale, ineffective at reducing fire spread and intensity. George Wuerthner has written extensively about this. This is a very important issue to me, as fires are always used as an excuse for more logging, both for forest thinning ("fuels management") and for "salvage." Burned forests are important carbon sinks and biodiverse wildlife habitat, and should be left alone to recover naturally. Logging is never good for forests. Resources: - Excellent interview with Ralph Bloemers on fire ecology: https://resistanceradioprn.podbean.com/e/resistance-radio-guest-ralph-bloemers/ - George Wuerthner: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/08/08/yet-another-misleading-piece-on-wildfires-from-the-new-york-times/ #StopThinningForests #FireEcology #Fire #Ecology #Biocentrism #GlobalWarming

...