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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 16, 2008
Winner of environmentally friendly innovations competition to receive $20,000
Press Release
Tempe, AZ - On Apr. 18, 2008, students from Arizona State University (ASU) will travel to the Wal-Mart Home Office in Bentonville, Ark. to compete in the “Better Living Business Plan Challenge.” The competition was created to provide students around the world an opportunity to invent sustainable products or business solutions and present them to a panel of Wal-Mart executives, government officials, suppliers and environmental organizations. In addition to gaining an audience with some of the top business and sustainability leaders in the US, the winning school will receive $20,000.
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 8, 2008
Science Magazine
"News articles offer an on-the-ground look at how cities are tackling specific problems from poverty and sanitation to traffic jams. Reviews and Perspectives examine how cities take shape and the impacts of urbanization on the environment, human health, economic growth, and the demographics of the developing world."
Be sure to check out the video presentation including GIOS researcher Nancy Grimm.
> Read 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 28, 2008
Arizona Republic
From a young age, small environmental efforts like this were embedded in my thought process. I saw how being environmentally savvy was a social event because I got to do it with my favorite person; an environmental event because cans were not being put in the garbage; and an economic event, because I earned a small dividend! Although these realizations came much later, the founding principles were there.
> Read more
January 28, 2008
Arizona Republic
To help create solutions to global warming, more than 1,200 colleges, universities and high schools in Arizona and across the United States this week will participate in Focus the Nation, a teach-in to educate and energize about 1 million young adults.
> Read more
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 25, 2008
ASU News
You know algae. It’s the gunk that collects on the sides of a fish tank when you forget to clean it. It’s the slime that makes you slip on rocks while crossing a stream. You probably think of algae as a nuisance, if you even bother to think of it at all.
January 23, 2008
ASU News
Two grants to ASU for development of new solar energy technologies show how ASU’s solar energy research has grown in new and important ways.
January 19, 2008
East Valley Tribune
With its bright sunny location and hundreds of thousands of square feet of flat rooftops, Arizona State University wants to move into solar energy in a big way.
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 25, 2007
New York Times
The threat of Global Warming is sparking new collaboration between academic disciplines. "'We want all the departments to contribute without thinking they own the initiative themselves,' Dr. Fink said. Already, experts in biogeochemistry — the study of the scientific underpinnings of earth’s origins and existing biosystems — are working with social scientists to study the impact of rapid urbanization on plants and animals."
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
Mark Brodie for KJZZ Environmentalists aren't the only ones talking about sustainability anymore. KJZZ's Mark Brodie speaks with two of the authors of a new report on the subject, and how it relates to Arizona.
