Spring 2021 update | FAQ page | Class flexibility for students | Novel coronavirus updates
April 30, 2008
Interdisciplinary focus help’s ASU’s Gober chart Phoenix’s future in uncertain times
Patricia Gober understands better than most that major shifts, in a climate or a career, are periods rife with uncertainty. The professor and former chair of Arizona State University’s department of geography was at the top of her game as a demographer and urban geographer when, a decade ago, she struck out to explore new intellectual terrain.
April 12, 2008
by Brad Allenby
for the Arizona Republic
It is hard to remember, but 10 years ago we were all madly in love. The object of our affection – biofuel – was beautiful; the promise was less climate change, support for agriculture, a shift to renewables, better national energy security. But love is blind, and so were we.
April 11, 2008
V. Kerry Smith
Special for The Republic
Everyone loves to keep score. Most aspects of our lives get rated in some way. Sports, computer games, university-degree programs, local school systems and many other factors of daily living are routinely scored.
March 28, 2008
NBC visited Arizona State University in February 2008 to explore in depth the nation's first School of Sustainability. Their report aired nationally March 24, 2008, on NBC Nightly News. Interviews with students, professors, and administrators shed light on challenges facing this generation of students, opportunities that await graduates, and how ASU's School of Sustainability prepares students for the future.
> Watch the NBC Nightly News video
March 28, 2008
by Jonathan Fink
Special for The Republic
On Saturday evening, Arizona State University's University Center building at the downtown Phoenix campus will go completely dark for one hour. The voluntary blackout is a symbol of ASU's commitment to Earth Hour 2008 – a global effort to build awareness around the need for action on climate change.
ASU's University Center and the entire downtown Phoenix area will join Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco and a host of other cities around the globe in turning off all non-essential lighting from 8 to 9 p.m. local time.
February 22, 2008
by Anthony Brazel for the Arizona Republic
During the 1960s, I had the good fortune of spending several summers on some ice- and snowfields in Alaska, at a time when it was commonly thought that global cooling was a climate trend and that we were returning to an ice age. A few decades later, I returned to Alaska to map and analyze glaciers, and found many dramatically retreated up their valleys by one-quarter of a mile or more.
February 2, 2008
by Jim Holway for the Arizona Republic
I am often asked: Are our current growth and water use “sustainable?” This simple question does not have a simple answer.
First, we have many options on how we choose to use our water. Second, the backdrop against which we view our water supply and use is constantly changing-our population continues to expand, our economy grows, our desires and expectations evolve, and we respond to any number of external events, including new technologies, global climate, and energy availability. Third, sustainability can be defined and measured in different ways with differing results.
January 25, 2008
by Eric Williams for the Arizona Republic
Finally, it has arrived: your new desktop computer with a 3Ghz processor and a screaming-fast video card that will realistically render the digital sweat on virtual enemies in your favorite video game.
Now, what happens with your old computer?
January 11, 2008
by Kathy Jacobs for the Arizona Republic
The Arizona Water Institute (AWI) is a consortium of Arizona's universities – Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona – focused on water sustainability through research, education, capacity building and technology development.
December 21, 2007
by Peter Fox for the Arizona Republic
As a child growing up on the outskirts of Chicago, I recall trips to the country where drinking water from wells always tasted odd. My relatives would try to convince me that drinking well water was good for me and that I should learn to enjoy the taste. Why did the water taste funny? The well waters were rich in calcium and magnesium. As it turns out, the definition of water hardness is primarily based on levels of these two minerals and those well waters were very hard. It was also quite logically good for me because hard water helps people get their daily recommended intake of calcium and magnesium, and studies have confirmed this fact.
December 15, 2007
by Brad Allenby for the Arizona Republic
I always enjoy visiting the Netherlands. It's a small country, prosperous and nicely designed, with a cultural friskiness that enabled them to become the first major European trading empire. This time, I was visiting the Technical University in Delft, and I couldn't help noticing two related things. The first was the continuing popularity of bicycles, supported by a sophisticated network of bike paths that let you get anywhere you wanted. The second was most people in Delft were in noticeably better shape than many Phoenix residents.
December 8, 2007
by Michael Barton for the Arizona Republic
In H.G. Well's famous book, The Time Machine, the central character travels into the future to witness the long-term consequences of the actions of human civilization. Alas, we have no time machine to aid us in trying to make wise decisions and sound public policies that will shape the world we live in. But my colleagues and I in the School of Human Evolution & Social Change at Arizona State University are seeking new ways to learn from the long record of decisions and actions from the past, and from their consequences, to help us better anticipate the outcomes of the complex ways in which our actions may impact the world around us. Many times, both the desirable and the undesirable (from a human point of view) consequences in our past were the result of well-intentioned decisions. But whether the results of those decisions were positive or negative became apparent only over the course of decades and centuries. This is all the more reason to wish for a time machine to allow us to glimpse the future. Fortunately, emerging computer technology, combined with scientific study of past societies (archaeology) and ecosystems (paleoecology), offers an exciting new opportunity to study the interactions between human activities and environmental consequences.
November 30, 2007
by Greg Peterson for the Arizona Republic
Stop . . . Think for a moment about that item you just tossed in the trash. Often it is a cup, lid, straw, or plastic bag that you used only once, for a short period of time, then tossed "away" to some unknown place called a landfill. Fast-food restaurants buy them by the gross for customers who then dispose of them in the trash. Then the restaurant wraps them all up in a bigger plastic bag and hauls them to the dumpster.
November 17, 2007
by Brad Allenby for the Arizona Republic
In 1945, in the blinding light of the first nuclear test at White Sands, N.M., physicist Robert Oppenheimer recalled the words of Vishnu, from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds."
Nuclear weapons represented a technology that, for the first time in human history, raised the specter of global catastrophe. But through planning, negotiation, regulation, and perhaps luck, the Cold War ended without nuclear exchange. Technology was managed.
October 19, 2007
by Chris Martin for the Arizona Republic
It's October in Phoenix, and the public's attention has once again turned to overseeding, ryegrass, and winter lawns. Phoenicians are blessed with a year-round growing season. This favorable climate gives residents the luxury of growing lush summer and winter lawns. Soft, deep-green ryegrass winter lawns are particularly attractive to residents and winter visitors because the level of people's outdoor recreation and lawn play dramatically increases as the weather cools.
October 6, 2007
by Brad Allenby for the Arizona Republic
When I was younger and in charge of AT&T's Design for Environment program, I once suggested to a Bell Laboratories design team that we create a “sustainable telephone.” We all thought it was a great idea, until someone asked me what one was and how it differed from an “ordinary” telephone. Would it “save the Earth”? Or perhaps “achieve social justice”? That seemed a lot to ask of a simple telephone.
September 22, 2007
by Anthony J. Brazel for the Arizona Republic
The monsoon may be the most talked-about weather feature of Phoenix in recent days, but another weather-related phenomenon going on in the Valley is in effect 12 months of the year. It's the urban heat island, or UHI, a phenomenon that makes the Phoenix nighttime low temperatures 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than temperatures in rural areas. The reason for an increasing UHI is the growth of Phoenix as we build out farther and farther into the desert valley.
September 1, 2007
by Patricia Gober for the Arizona Republic
Water is the key resource for growth in a desert city like Phoenix. The Valley is blessed with a diverse portfolio of water sources, including the upland watersheds of the Salt and Verde rivers, the Colorado River Basin and, when surface waters are in short supply, a vast network of underground aquifers.
August 27, 2007
By Philip White
Arizona Republic: Environment
Evidence that we each need to be more environmentally responsible surrounds us. Global warming is no longer just “a theory,” and the rate of species extinction increases precipitously as the growing human population expands its pressure on the Earth's resources.
August 4, 2007
by Jay Golden and Kamil Kaloush for the Arizona Republic
In rapidly urbanizing regions such as Phoenix, pavements comprise the largest percentage of the developed urban fabric, more so than roofs and open space. During daytime, streets, highways and parking lots absorb and retain short-wave radiation from the sun.
