Making Headlines
The following articles reflect our commitment to share sustainability-related accomplishments across the university — representing its colleges, departments, institutes, centers and other units — in the areas of research, student engagement, campus stewardship and collaborations with the public and private sectors.
Bloomberg, Oct. 30, 2019
Al Gore’s 400-acre farm is located in Carthage, a small Tennessee town where the former vice president and senator traditionally kicked off his political campaigns. During his second act as a famous environmentalist, the farm became the site of a training program for aspiring climate activists, and more recently, an experiment in what Gore said is the world’s most realistic chance at averting climate catastrophe. ...
Featured expert(s): Rattan Lal
soil science, SI affiliated faculty
The Wire, October 28, 2019
Africa is building an 8,000-km-long wall of trees. The UK government has announced funds to plant 10 million trees across England. In India, volunteers planted 66 million trees in Madhya Pradesh within 12 hours. Many countries hope to offset their carbon emissions by planting more trees. But in a new study, scientists from Columbia University show that if carbon emissions continue at the present rate, planting trees alone may not work. ...
Featured expert(s): Rattan Lal
soil science, SI affiliated faculty
U.S. Department of Energy, Oct. 25, 2019
In order to more sustainably meet the global energy demands of the future, a drastic shift in the world’s energy production strategy is required to replace or, more efficiently use, fossil fuels. Christine M. Thomas is the Fox Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The Ohio State University and formerly a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Brandeis University. ...
Featured expert(s): Christine M. Thomas
chemistry and biochemistry, SI core faculty
Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 20, 2019
Fall is a great time to plant a tree - just ask Mary Maloney, director of Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens on the Ohio State University campus.…Maloney invites you to attend ArboBlitz, an annual event in which students and other participants help plant trees on the OSU campus. The event offers dorm residents, apartment dwellers and other tree-lovers with no yard of their own the opportunity to dig a hole, get their hands dirty and help establish a living legacy that can be enjoyed for many decades. ...
Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 15, 2019
Last month was the warmest September on record for the state dating back to 1895. If temperatures continue to rise, as many as 19 bird species could disappear from Ohio, according to a report issued by the Audubon Society. ...
Featured expert(s): Aaron Wilson
Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, SI affiliated faculty
WOSU, Oct. 8, 2019
Sewage overflow is an issue in the U.S. The EPA estimates that each year as many as 75,000 sanitary sewers overflow across the country, dumping untold gallons of untreated sewage into U.S. Waterways. ...
Featured expert(s): Jay Martin
ecological engineering, SI Faculty Advisory Board, research co-lead, healthy land, water and air systems
Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 4, 2019
Ohio State electrical engineering graduate students Brandi Downs and Oguz Demir are among 600 researchers and scientists on an international expedition who will spent two-month legs aboard the German icebreaker Polarstern lodged in Arctic ice, drifting with it toward the North Pole for a full year. They will use a wide-band radiometer to measure electromagnetic waves in sea ice to determine its thickness, temperature and other information. ...
Cleveland.com, Oct. 2, 2019
Local officials say — and Ohio’s top elected officials agree — that a $1.6 billion natural-gas plant planned for an economically struggling area in Southeast Ohio is fantastic news. But deep-pocketed defenders of Ohio’s nuclear bailout law have flooded the state with ads suggesting it’s actually the vanguard of a Chinese communist plot. Welcome to the House Bill 6 campaign. ...
Featured expert(s): Mark Partridge
agricultural, environmental and development economics
WSYX, Oct. 2, 2019
A federal lawsuit blames toxic construction materials for uprooting families from Central Ohio homes. Two years ago, a strong chemical smell permeated the O’Byrnes brand-new home in the Chestnut Commons neighborhood in Pickaway County. ...
Featured expert(s): Karen Dannemiller
Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, SI Faculty Advisory Board, SI Core Faculty
Akron Legal News, Oct. 2, 2019
An Ohio State University-led study to capture heat for use in generation of electricity has resulted in a discovery in thermoelectrics that may lead toward more efficient energy generation. ...
Featured expert(s): Joseph Heremans
mechanical and aerospace engineering