The University of New Hampshire lowered its greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 26 percent compared to a 2001 baseline, it reported in its latest greenhouse gas emissions inventory, released today. Based on current emissions reduction goals set forth in UNH’s Climate Action Plan, called “WildCAP”, the university is well on the way to achieving its goal of reducing emissions 50 percent by 2020.

The latest greenhouse gas emissions inventory public report and a longer technical report can be downloaded at www.sustainableunh.unh.edu/ghginventory.

UNH has steadily reduced its carbon footprint, primarily because of its cogeneration heat and power plant, the EcoLine landfill gas project, and a revolving energy efficiency fund (EEF) that invests in on-campus energy efficiency projects. UNH sells the renewable energy certificates (RECs) associated with EcoLine’s electricity generation and uses the funds generated...

When Northern Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caught fire back in 1952, the depth of American environmental degradation was made manifest. The startling image helped spawn the environmental movement and the eventual passage of laws that cleaned up the nation's water and air.

In like fashion, if the ever-thickening blanket of planet-warming carbon dioxide were to blacken the sky, would mankind move with similar resolve to apply the brakes on global warming?

"There is a critical need in the whole range of climate change science to make the invisible visible," says Cameron Wake of the Earth System Research Center, "and measuring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a great example."

If people could see the parts per million of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, Wake says, "I think there...

Students at UNH are unearthing the site of the original train depot that used to be on the great lawn near Morrill Hall until it was moved after a tragic 1905 train accident. 

The archaeological dig is part of UNH’s innovative “The Lost Campus: The Archaeology of UNH” course taught by Meghan Howey, assistant professor of anthropology. This is Howey’s third archaeological dig on campus; previously UNH students under Howey’s direction excavated the site that once was home to the late Charles Holmes Pettee, a longtime UNH professor and dean, and the site of a World War I Army barracks.

“My hope is to build a longer-term commitment regarding UNH’s cultural heritage. When we have new building projects, I hope we consider our cultural and historical resources. When we think, we want to think big,” Howey says. “The land records and holds memory, and what happened at this site, even before UNH was here, is part of our cultural heritage and identity.”

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Despite New Hampshire being one of the most liberal states in the nation at the time of the American Civil War, racism was common in the letters of New Hampshire soldiers, including those who said they supported freeing the slaves. 

Senior Nathan Marzoli, a history major from Dover, investigated the attitudes of New Hampshire Civil War soldiers for his senior undergraduate research project, “New Hampshire Civil War Soldiers and Slavery.”

“Similarly to the rest of the nation, there appeared to have been a huge variety of views among...

An authority of Jewish architecture and the memory of the Holocaust will deliver the Hans Heilbronner Lecture at UNH Wednesday, April 24.

Presented by the College of Liberal Arts and the Department of History, the lecture “Jewish Architecture and the Memory of the Holocaust” begins at 5 p.m. in the Murkland 115. The lecture and following roundtable discussion are free and open to the public and sponsored by the Endowed Fund for Holocaust Education.

The lecture will be delivered by Gavriel Rosenfeld, associate professor of history and director of the undergraduate program in Judaic studies at Fairfield University. Rosenfeld’s area of specialization is the history and memory of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. 

He is the author of several books, including “Building after Auschwitz: Jewish Architecture and the Memory of the Holocaust” (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), “The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism...

From climate regulation to rain forest clearing to water pollution, dirt has a bigger impact on the world’s ecosystems than most of us imagine. Soil and the processes it carries out is the subject of the next Portsmouth Science Café Wednesday, April 10, 2013, at 6 p.m. at the Portsmouth Brewery’s Jimmy LaPanza Lounge. 

Serita Frey, professor of soil microbial ecology, and Alix Contosta, a postdoctoral research scientist at UNH, will present their most recent soil research and lead a discussion about how the quality of the soil determines the capacity of land to support natural ecosystems and human society. As humanity becomes increasingly...

UNH Cooperative Extension is seeking volunteers for three upcoming events designed to help restore the habitat of the endangered New England cottontail rabbit. In Dover and Durham, volunteers will plant native shrubs that the rabbits use for shelter.  

Volunteers can choose any or all of the following days/locations: 

• Saturday, April 20, Dover, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
• Saturday, April 27, Durham, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. or 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
• Sunday, April 28, Durham, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. or 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

“This is a great chance to get outdoors and do good work for the benefit of an endangered species,” says Emma Carcagno, Cooperative Extension wildlife program assistant.

The New England cottontail has been in decline for several decades largely due to habitat loss. It is believed there are less than 100 remaining in New Hampshire. The rabbit was placed on the state’s endangered species list in 2008 and is a candidate for...