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.
The Columbus Dispatch, 25-Jul-18
American Electric Power has joined with the state of Ohio to create a college- and career-readiness program for high schoolers. … ONE was approved in the most recent state budget, Burgess said, so Ohio’s high school class of 2018 saw the first eligible students. As the program grows and attracts more employees to serve as mentors, the volume of participants will grow, too. “I definitely see the program continuing to build,” Burgess said. “For one, there is a growing list of businesses across the state who support the initiative ... and Ohio State (University) is supporting this, too.” ...
Digital Trends, 25-Jul-18
Columbus, Ohio, may have won the nationwide Smart City Challenge, but all the grant money in the world won’t help it prepare for the future if the city doesn’t also win over public opinion … Meanwhile, Ohio State University and Honda have partnered to build a nearby autonomous vehicle testing facility. ...
The Conversation, 24-Jul-18
Millions of Americans head outdoors in the summer, whether for a day at a nearby lake or a monthlong road trip. For environmental economists like me, decisions by vacationers and outdoor recreators offer clues to a challenging puzzle: estimating what environmental resources are worth. ...
Featured expert(s): Timothy Haab, professor of environmental economics
Columbus Dispatch, 22-Jul-18
Australian biologists recently reported an increase in major coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef over the past 40 years. ...
Featured expert(s): column author Steve Rissing, professor of biology
WOSU, 18-Jul-18
p>About 30 urban farmers tend land in Columbus, up from just five a few years ago. About a quarter of the farmers grow vegetables full-time for their income. The Ohio State University Extension office, the outreach arm of CFAES, wants to encourage more people to start an urban farm. “We have a project right now where the university is committed to buying about 40 percent of its food purchases from local sources," says Mike Hogan, associate professor at Ohio State Extension in Franklin County. "And we’re working with families very close in the University District to help them develop microbusinesses where they learn how to grow food that the university is willing to purchase." ...
IFLScience, 18-Jul-18
Predicting climate change can be tricky, in part because there is so much that we just don't know. But new research on microbes and viruses in Sweden's thawing permafrost – aka a thick subterranean layer of soil that has remained completely frozen for two years or more – may hold some answers. The results have been published in Nature, Nature Microbiology, and the ISME Journal. ...
Featured expert(s): Virginia Rich, assistant professor of microbiology
The Daily Beast The Daily Beast, 17-Jul-18
...And while fracking has faced plenty of environmental vitriol, it could have the potential of being a live simulation of how microbes thrive in crevices. That’s because microbes seem to do just that in the crevices created by fracking. ...
Featured expert(s): Kelly Wrighton, assistant professor, and Mikayla Borton, graduate research associate, microbiology
Sandusky Register, 15-Jul-18
At Thursday’s seventh annual Harmful Algal Bloom Forecast announcement at Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory, NOAA and Heidelberg University researchers concurred with what boaters have already been observing this summer — there is an algal bloom underway... ...A recent report led by retired Ohio Sea Grant Director Jeff Reutter concluded that nearly 88 percent of non-point phosphorus loading comes from agricultural sources. It is clear that Ohio’s largest industry has a long way to go to slow the eutrophication (aging) of the lake. ...
Featured expert(s): retired Ohio Sea Grant Director Jeff Reutter
Toledo Blade, 13-Jul-18
This summer’s Lake Erie algal bloom is forecast to be six on a scale of 10 for severity — not quite as large as last summer’s bloom, but thick and sizable nonetheless. ...
Featured expert(s): Jeffrey Reutter, director emeritus, Ohio Sea Grant
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 12-Jul-18
New satellite data to bring more accurate and detailed predictions NOAA and its research partners predict that western Lake Erie will experience a harmful algal bloom (HAB) of cyanobacteria this summer that is smaller than in 2017 but larger than the mild bloom in 2016. ...