Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

UNC study: North Carolina leads U.S. in tobacco-free college campuses
The Chapel Hill Herald
North Carolina leads the nation in the number of college campuses that have voluntarily banned or severely restricted smoking, according to a study by UNC researchers. The study, published in the journal Tobacco Control, found that in the first four years of the North Carolina Tobacco-Free Colleges Initiative, 33 college campuses in North Carolina adopted tobacco-free policies, which prevent tobacco use to the maximum extent allowed by law.
Click here to read more.

-Thanks to UNC News Services for finding these great stories AND compiling the summaries! You can find more UNC media coverage and stories online at http://uncnews.unc.edu

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

Oceans choking on CO2, face deadly changes: study
Reuters (Wire Service)e
The world's oceans are virtually choking on rising greenhouse gases, destroying marine ecosystems and breaking down the food chain -- irreversible changes that have not occurred for several million years, a new study says. ...The world's climate has remained stable for several thousand years, but climate change in the past 150 years is now forcing organisms to change rapidly -- changes that through evolution would normally take a long time, said the report. "We are becoming increasingly certain that the world's marine ecosystems are approaching tipping points. These tipping points are where change accelerates and causes unrelated impacts on other systems," said co-author marine scientist John F. Bruno at the University of North Carolina
Click here to read more.

Striving for Educational Equity
Inside Higher Ed
...In addition to building the case for more federal and state financial support for students from low-income backgrounds, the numbers also helped prompt a group of highly selective public and private institutions to alter their admissions and financial aid policies and practices to focus more on low-income students. One of those programs, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Carolina Covenant program, was celebrated Thursday at an event here at which the Century Foundation released a follow up to the 2004 book -- America's Untapped Resource: Low-Income Students in Higher Education -- in which Carnevale's and Rose's original analysis appeared.
Click here to read more.

A Sea Change (Blog)
Time
Science publishes a special issue this week on "Changing Oceans." Perhaps the most striking article in the issue is a review on "The Impact of Climate Change on the World's Marine Ecosystems." The article begins by pointing out how oceans, which currently cover 71% of the earth's surface, nurtured life on our planet. The paper then goes on to list the drastic and at times horrifying ways that human activities are already driving rapid changes to ocean ecosystems. I briefly caught up with John Bruno of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who co-authored the review with Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of The University of Queensland, to discuss why oceans, after cradling life for millions of years, may soon turn into giant graves.
Click here to read more.

Casino city bans riding bikes through town
The Associated Press
The gambling town of Black Hawk has prohibited touring bicyclists from pedaling while in town, becoming what's thought by cycling advocates to be the only city in the nation with such a restriction. ...Charlie Zegeer, Director of the U.S. Department of Transportation-funded Pedestrian and Bicycling Information Center at the University of North Carolina, said communities concerned about safety provide alternate routes. Cities in Europe that were built centuries ago have also made accommodations, Zegeer said. "It's a matter of priorities," he said.
Click here to read more.

Agency helps find workers affordable houses
The Star-News (Wilmington)
In 2006, Resea Willis asked the question: “Why can’t working people find affordable housing in Brunswick County?” ...The North Carolina Community Development Corporation funded a study by the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, which was completed in 2007. The study showed that fast-growing Brunswick County had a shortage of affordable housing for essential workers, which caused traffic congestion, longer commuting times, and more air pollution. Click here to read more.

UNC Oil Estimate
WGHP-TV (Greensboro)
After the Gulf oil rig explosion and the oil leak that followed, many groups, including BP and the U.S. Government, had developed many different estimates on how much oil was gushing from the well each day. In this edition of the Buckley Report, a professor and his students at UNC-Chapel Hill found out that it wasn't too hard to figure out exactly how much oil was spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.
Click here to read more.

-Thanks to UNC News Services for finding these great stories AND compiling the summaries! You can find more UNC media coverage and stories online at http://uncnews.unc.edu

UNC Sustainability Update - UNC wins CARE, P3, and lean Fuel Grants!

Today's UNC Sustainability Update includes the following headlines:

• UNC wins 2010 NC Mobile Clean Air Renewable Energy (CARE) Award


• Facilities Services Awarded Clean Fuel Grant


• UNC Wins 2010 P3 Award for Drinking Water Treatment in Developing Countries


• NC Botanical Garden on UNC–TV


• Carolina North Update


• Summertime in Chapel Hill is Locally Grown


• And more!

Click here to read the full UNC Sustainability Update.

Click here to join the UNC Sustainability Listserv.

Facilities Services Awarded Clean Fuel Grant

The Facilities Services Division has been awarded a grant from the 2010 Clean Fuel Advanced Technology (CFAT) Project. CFAT is a one million dollar initiative of the NC Solar Center – funded in part by federal dollars from the NC Department of Transportation – that provides funds to government, business and non-profit fleet and fuel providers for transportation-related emission reduction projects. In recognition of Facilities Services’ commitment to balancing transportation needs with environmental responsibility, Facilities Services will receive $55,510 to replace four combustion-powered vehicles now operating on campus with four fully electric vehicles.

University Mail Services (UMS), a unit of Facilities Services’ Business Operations Department, will use its portion of the grant award to purchase two fully electric Vantage GreenTruck cargo vans. The vehicles are equipped with a 35 horsepower motor and 72 volt AC drive system as an alternative fuel solution. The maintenance free batteries have an estimated 30,000 mile life, and provide up to a 40 mile range when fully charged.

UMS collects and delivers approximately seven million pieces of mail each year. Its external operations delivery unit services 190 locations within an approximate 10-mile radius of the main campus, twice daily. The Vantage GreenTruck cargo vans will be incorporated into regular mail routes, and are capable of navigating both campus streets and areas of campus with heavy volumes of foot traffic. They will replace two full-sized Dodge vans currently in UMS’ fleet and fueled with E-10 fuel.

The Housing Support section of Facilities Services’ Building Services Department will purchase two 100 percent electrically powered Global Electric Motorcars (GEM). The GEMs are equipped with a 7.0 horsepower motor and nine 8-volt maintenance-free gel batteries with a range of up to 40 miles per charge. They will replace one Ford F150 pickup truck and one Dodge Ram 2500 that consume E-10 fuel.

Housing Support is responsible for the physical condition of all University-owned residences – 32 campus residence halls, and three apartment communities made up of approximately 54 buildings – through services such as Maintenance, HVAC and Life Safety.

The makes and models of the electric vehicles will provide the appropriate alternative fuel solution for UNC Chapel Hill while meeting all of Facilities Services’ operational needs. They are virtually silent, which is vital when instruction is taking place on campus. Operationally, they are easy to navigate the campus, and lighter in weight so they will not damage the campus’ iconic brick walkways, but will still provide adequate space for tools, equipment and transporting other items. All of the electric vehicles purchased will be licensed for street use.

“Facilities Services shares the NC Solar Center’s commitment to clean air and is proud to have earned this recognition of both our record of environmental stewardship and our ongoing efforts to ensure a safe and healthy environment through the use of renewable energy,” said UNC’s Chief Facilities Officer Van Dobson. “Ultimately, the entire University and community will benefit from this clean fuel project.”

The official announcement and acknowledgement of Facilities Services’ award was held in a recognition ceremony as part of the NC Solar Center’s Mobilizing NC: Where Air Quality, Energy and Transportation Meet conference on May 26 in Raleigh.

Facilities Services Named Clean Air Renewable Energy Award Winner

Facilities Services was named the winner of the 2010 NC Mobile Clean Air Renewable Energy (CARE) Award, Fleet Category. Organized by the NC Solar Center/NC State University and sponsored by the NC Dept. of Transportation, the Mobile CARE Awards honor outstanding individual and organizational achievements in reducing transportation-related emissions. Facilities Services was recognized for excellence in incorporating the use of alternative fuels and advanced transportation technologies in its operations.

Nearly 30 nominations were judged in four categories – Individual, Fleet, Fuel/Tech Provider and Policy/Organization – for the fourth annual awards presentations. The award selection committee, consisting of representatives from the NC Energy Office, NC Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources’ Division of Air Quality and the NC Dept. of Transportation, was “especially impressed” by UNC’s petroleum displacement activities and accomplishments in displacing 133,000 gallons of petroleum in FY 2008-2009.

In addition, the award recognizes that over the past five years, the University has experienced a 7 percent decrease of gasoline or diesel fueled vehicles to its fleet and a 422 percent increase of alternative fueled vehicles (140 total).

These accomplishments are particularly noteworthy in that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a large university with a wide range of activities and business that take place on campus and across the state; therefore, it would not be realistic to eliminate or radically reduce the number of vehicles on campus and still meet the myriad demands of the University. Instead, Facilities Services has developed innovative strategies and implemented a number of proactive measures to achieve significant petroleum reductions, including the use of electric vehicles, the conversion of gasoline pumps to dispense E-10 fuel and the installation of an 8,000-gallon tank and pump for dispensing E-85 fuel at the University Service Station. Today, pure gasoline is not dispensed at all on campus.

University Service Station Manager Mark Stark was presented the Mobile CARE award by NC Dept. of Transportation Secretary Gene Conti during the Mobilizing NC Conference on May 26.

For more information on the NC Solar Center’s projects and initiatives, visit www.ncsc.ncsu.edu.

UNC Sustainability Update - Upcoming Events

Today's UNC Sustainability Update includes the following headlines:

• UNC & Local Events


• Regional & National Events


• Workshops & Classes

Click here to read the full UNC Sustainability Update.

Click here to join the UNC Sustainability Listserv.

Gulf Oil Spill

Food for thought:

Does it take a crisis to get people to go along a new path or can they respond to a series of rational, incremental gains in knowledge?

Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

Reports raise alarm over threat to oceans
The Vancouver Sun (Canada)
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a disaster, but it may pale compared to what scientists say is brewing in the world's oceans due to everyday consumption of fossil fuels. ...And a third says humans, and their ever-increasing carbon emissions, are acidifying the ocean in a "grand planetary experiment" that could have devastating impacts. Marine scientists Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, at the University of Queensland in Australia, and John Bruno, at University of North Carolina, describe how the oceans act as a "heat sink" and are slowly heating up along with the atmosphere as greenhouse gas emissions climb.
Click here to read more.

While Oil Gushes, Invisible Ocean Impacts Build
The New York Times
One reason the public, and politicians, have been so focused on the unchecked environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico is the vivid nature of the assault from gushing oil. ...A reminder of the less glaring, but still momentous, changes that are under way in the seas is provided by a new paper in the journal Science, by researchers at the University of Queensland and University of North Carolina. The authors survey the oceanic impacts of rising greenhouse-gas concentrations and reinforce what has become ever clearer in recent years: The ongoing buildup of carbon dioxide, both by warming the planet and changing ocean chemistry, is having large impacts on marine life and ocean dynamics, with substantial repercussions for human food supplies and health.
Click here to read more.

Public invited to Carolina North meeting
The Chapel Hill Herald
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites local residents, faculty, staff and students to attend a public meeting to explain the permitting process required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before development can go forward at Carolina North. The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. Monday in the theater room at the Seymour Senior Center, 2551 Homestead Road. Free parking is available, and Chapel Hill Transit serves the center via the A route.
Click here to read more.

-Thanks to UNC News Services for finding these great stories AND compiling the summaries! You can find more UNC media coverage and stories online at http://uncnews.unc.edu

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

Following the Plumes
"The Story" American Public Media
When marine sciences grad student Lisa Nigro got a call one Friday a few weeks back, she didn’t have time to think about being part of history. She had three days to prepare for a scientific expedition to help study the newly-discovered oil plumes drifting in the Gulf of Mexico. The plumes are a result of the gigantic BP spill. And while it was exciting to be in the Gulf, Lisa tells Dick that seeing first-hand the extent of the water contamination was devastating. (Lisa Nigro is a graduate student in the department of marine sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill.)
Click here to read more.


Buncombe County housing costs, commutes linked
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)
Buncombe County's high housing costs are pushing low-wage workers to live farther from their jobs, adding to their transportation costs and to the area's air pollution problems. That's the conclusion of a study by UNC Chapel Hill's Center for Urban & Regional Studies released Tuesday. “There is a mismatch between where working families live … and where they work,” William Rohe, one of the study's authors, said at a press conference held at the Governor's Western Residence to release the study.
Click here to read more.

-Thanks to UNC News Services for finding these great stories AND compiling the summaries! You can find more UNC media coverage and stories online at http://uncnews.unc.edu

UNC researchers to predict Southeastern states’ air quality

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers are collaborating on a new project to help predict levels of ozone, fine particles and regional haze in North Carolina and other Southeastern states in the coming decade.

The effort aims to protect public health and the environment effectively and efficiently without unnecessarily impairing economic development.

Using funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Southeastern States Air Resource Managers Inc. has awarded a $1.05 million contract to a collaborative group that includes the Center for Environmental Modeling for Policy Development at the UNC Institute for the Environment.

The project will aid in the development of state implementation plans required by the Clean Air Act and help states assess their compliance with the EPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The standards are designed to protect human health – especially among people suffering from respiratory illnesses, the elderly and children – and apply to critical air contaminants like ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and lead.

States not in compliance with the standards risk losing funds from the Federal Highway Administration. Several cities in North Carolina, including Charlotte, are either out of compliance or nearing it.

Along with North Carolina, the project will provide data for agencies in nine other states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

The project group also includes researchers at Colorado State University and Georgia Tech, which will serve as the primary investigator. Zac Adelman is the principal investigator leading the UNC team.

For more information see http://www.ie.unc.edu/PDF/news_related/CEMPD_SESARM_release.pdf.

Institute for the Environment contact: Josh Meyer

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

... our oil defenses (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...So now let's talk about man-made disaster. Specifically, in terms of a what-if, suppose there is a large oil spill from an offshore rig in the Gulf region, and oil from that spill drifts up to North Carolina. How would we respond? Which agencies of state government would be called together to coordinate that response? Who among our experts in residence (looking especially to our universities such as Duke, N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill) would know what to do?
Click here to read more.

Report finds some good news for Great Barrier Reef
"AM" Australian Broadcasting Corporation
After facing what appeared to be a gloomy outlook, there's finally some good news for the Great Barrier Reef. After a hot summer, and a series of heatwaves last year, scientists say late monsoonal conditions protected much of the coral from a major bleaching event. But a new study shows mortality in the world's tropical oceans is increasing, and as bleaching becomes more common, corals simply aren't getting enough time to recover. ...And a study by John Bruno from the University of North Carolina now shows between one and two per cent of the world's tropical corals are being lost each year.
Click here to read more.

On the hunt for life in oil spill
The Charlotte Observer
In the midst of the largest oil spill in U.S. history, scientists from UNC Chapel Hill are scouring the Gulf of Mexico for an almost invisible life-form that may be crucial to the cleanup. Marine microbiologist Andreas Teske and his team are hunting for a group of microbes that feed on oil, breaking down the hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide. ...Luke McKay, one of Teske's doctoral students, was aboard one of the first research vessels to reach the site, 35 miles off the coast of Louisiana. He said evidence of the spill was already clear.
Click here to read more.

Oil spill puts N.C.'s coastal riches in new light
The News & Record (Greensboro)
Chances remain slim to none that oil or the now-familiar “tar balls” from the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers in the Gulf of Mexico will reach the North Carolina coast this summer, experts say. But it is in the blue water offshore — the same depths where the BP well continued to gush oil a mile below the ocean’s surface last week — that damage to Tar Heel marine life may lurk. ...Getting a first-hand look at the spill, the jointly operated Duke University/UNC-Chapel Hill research vessel Cape Hatteras rounded the Dry Tortugas and entered the Gulf late last week.
Click here to read more.

Researchers Sail to the Spill Site (Blog)
The New York Times
One journey I’ll be following closely over the next week is the voyage of the Cape Hatteras, a 135-foot research vessel operated by the Duke/University of North Carolina Oceanographic Consortium. As we reported here last week, scientists from these and other universities are sailing into the heart of the oil spill to study its environmental impact. After a stop in Gulfport, Miss., the crew departed Saturday for the spill site in the Gulf of Mexico and is blogging from the boat.
Click here to read more.

-Thanks to UNC News Services for finding these great stories AND compiling the summaries! You can find more UNC media coverage and stories online at http://uncnews.unc.edu

Carolina graduate student to help with revitalizing Columbus County

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is helping to revitalize the economies of small communities across the state through its internship program, the Carolina Economic Revitalization Corps.

The program is sending Matthew Dudek, a rising third-year dual-degree graduate student in the department of city and regional planning and the public administration program at the School of Government, to work for 10 weeks with the Cape Fear Council of Governments. Dudek will provide research and grant-writing support for the commission as well as offer assistance for community and economic development projects.

“We are extremely blessed to have Matthew Dudek assisting us this summer,” said Chris May, executive director of the Cape Fear Council of Governments. “He immediately latched on to our work list for Columbus County with the fresh enthusiasm we needed to jump start initiatives designed to relieve the county’s economic woes.”

With a bachelor’s degree in political science from Gordon College in Massachusetts, Dudek currently serves as a co-leader of the Cleveland-Holloway Neighborhood Association in Durham and is also a part of Durham’s Inter-Neighborhood Council.

Dudek has also previously served as a policy analyst with the transportation and municipalities committees of the Massachusetts State Legislature as well as with the Massachusetts Municipal Association in Boston. This experience will enhance his work at the Cape Fear Council of Government.

“I feel honored to be selected to work with the Cape Fear Council of Government in Columbus County,” Dudek said. “I am hoping to gain a better understanding of how regional governments work. I am also hoping to put the skills I have learned in the UNC planning program and the public administration program to practical use.”

Dudek is one of six interns who will participate in the Revitalization Corps this summer. Started in 2009 as the Carolina Economic Recovery Corps to respond to communities that needed help applying for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding, the university-wide program was created by the Office of Economic and Business Development and is administered by the School of Government. Funding comes from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, the Graduate School and the N.C. Rural Center. The program continues this summer as a way to give graduate students considerable on-the-job experience while helping municipalities with community and economic development planning.

The interns come from the departments of city and regional planning in the College of Arts and Sciences, public administration in the School of Government and the Gillings School of Global Public Health. They trained at the School of Government before taking a full-time position at a regional organization located in North Carolina. When they return to UNC for the fall semester, the interns will spend 12 hours per week working remotely during the school year. Interns receive a paid stipend, tuition support and graduate student health insurance.

In addition to the Cape Fear Council of Governments, interns this year have been assigned to work with North Carolina’s Northeast Commission office in Edenton, the Lumber River Council of Governments in Pembroke, the Land-of-Sky Council of Governments in Asheville, Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments in Henderson and the Bayboro Small Towns Economic Prosperity Committee in Bayboro.

Map showing corps member placements: http://bit.ly/aTTB9q

Photo: http://www.blogger.com/images/stories/news/students/2010/img_9815b.jpg

Office of Economic and Business Development contacts: Jesse White

Carolina graduate student to help with revitalizing the town of Bayboro

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is helping to revitalize the economies of small communities across the state through its internship program, the Carolina Economic Revitalization Corps.

The program is sending Suzanne Julian, a rising second-year graduate student in the public administration program at the School of Government, to work for 10 weeks with the Bayboro Small Towns Economic Prosperity (STEP) Committee in Bayboro. Julian will offer assistance for community and economic development projects as well as participate in other administrative tasks.

“We are thrilled to have Suzanne intern with us for the summer,” said Beth Bucksot, chairperson for the Business Entrepreneur Committee of the Bayboro STEP initiative. “Our organization is extremely grateful to have her help us to grow and link our community assets and resources.”

Previously, Julian served as the project manager of Hands On Gulf Coast, where she coordinated a multitude of disaster-relief projects following Hurricane Katrina. This experience built skills that Julian will rely upon while working with committee members as they finalize plans to be presented at the Bayboro Town Council.

Julian also gained additional experience over the past year, when she served as a research assistant at the Public Intersection Project at the School of Government and facilitated local government strategic planning sessions.

Originally from Texas, where she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in sociology, Julian is looking forward to becoming more familiar with the eastern part of the state and becoming a helpful resource for the community.

“I am excited to be part of the CERC program this year,” Julian said. “There are a lot of great community and economic development projects already in the works, and I am excited to help advance them.”

Julian is one of six interns who will participate in the Revitalization Corps this summer. Started in 2009 as the Carolina Economic Recovery Corps to respond to communities that needed help applying for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding, the university-wide program was created by the Office of Economic and Business Development and is administered by the School of Government. Funding comes from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, the Graduate School and the N.C. Rural Center. The program continues this summer as a way to give graduate students considerable on-the-job experience while helping municipalities with community and economic development planning.

The interns come from the departments of city and regional planning in the College of Arts and Sciences, public administration in the School of Government and the Gillings School of Global Public Health. They trained at the School of Government before taking a full-time position at a regional organization located in North Carolina. When they return to UNC for the fall semester, the interns will spend 12 hours per week working remotely during the school year. Interns receive a paid stipend, tuition support and graduate student health insurance.

In addition to the Bayboro (STEP) Committee, interns this year have been assigned to work with the North Carolina’s Northeast Commission office in Edenton, Cape Fear Council of Governments in Wilmington, the Lumber River Council of Governments in Pembroke, the Land-of-Sky Council of Governments in Asheville, and the Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments in Henderson.

Map showing corps member placements: http://bit.ly/aTTB9q

Photo: http://uncnews.unc.edu/images/stories/news/students/2010/cercjulian.jpg

Office of Economic and Business Development contacts: Jesse White

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

Oysters will tell if oil reaches Georgia coast
The Atlanta Journal Constitutional (Georgia)
In the unlikely event that the BP oil slick sullies Georgia's coast, Jeb Byers will be ready. ...On June 1, Byers and colleagues at Florida State University in Tallahassee and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill began a 3-year project to document the state of oyster reefs in a dozen estuaries from Virginia to the Florida Gulf coast. Byers is monitoring two Georgia sites, one off Sapelo Island and the other off Skidaway Island.
Click here to read more.

Study: Telecommuting can hurt your career
The Sacramento Business Journal (California)
...In the first-ever academic study of “passive” face time — when workers are seen in the office without any interaction — UC Davis professors Kimberly Elsbach and Jeffrey Sherman found that bosses think more favorably of employees who are present. ...Elsbach, of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, and Sherman, from the UC Davis Department of Psychology, worked with University of North Carolina professor Dan Cable on a pair of studies. Their findings were published in the June issue of the journal Human Relations.
Click here to read more.

-Thanks to UNC News Services for finding these great stories AND compiling the summaries! You can find more UNC media coverage and stories online at http://uncnews.unc.edu

UNC researchers helping tackle the Gulf oil spill

As the massive oil spill off the Louisiana coast continues to threaten the environment and communities around the Gulf of Mexico, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are involved in frontline efforts to deal with the disaster.

The researchers listed can cover a wide range of topics, including projecting the oil spill’s spread; scientific efforts that may help lessen the impact of this or future catastrophes; and first-hand accounts from the Gulf. UNC experts can also provide knowledgeable commentary on other issues related to the disaster, such as legal ramifications of the spill.

Projecting the oil spill’s spread

Rick Luettich, Ph.D., is leading efforts to provide better predictions of where the oil spill will spread to in near shore areas using advanced computer models. A marine scientist and environmental engineer, Luettich studies physical processes in coastal systems, including the impact of hurricanes and storm surges.

• Is operating a high-powered computer model that will be run daily, with each run producing a forecast of the spill’s movement for the following 72 hours. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security.
• The model is highly detailed, with resolutions down to 50 to 40 yards, allowing it to represent near shore areas, estuaries and marshes more accurately than other models that are currently being used, therefore making it better suited to predicting how oil will impact these environmentally sensitive areas.
• The model can also run scenarios of what might happen if a hurricane or storm hits the area, such as how oil may be swept ashore and impact roads and other infrastructure, possibly affecting official evacuation plans, etc.
• As well as providing predictions to federal and state officials, the UNC team plan to make the data available to other scientists and agencies to mine for details and potentially come up with other uses and practical applications for responding to the disaster.

Luettich is director of UNC’s Institute for Marine Sciences located in Morehead City, N.C. (where he is primarily based) and UNC’s Center for the Study of Natural Hazards and Disasters in Chapel Hill. He is also a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Web page: http://marine.unc.edu/people/Faculty/luettich

John Bane, Ph.D., and Harvey Seim, Ph.D., are experts in ocean circulation and currents, including the Atlantic Gulf stream and the Gulf of Mexico’s Loop Current.

• Can comment on the possibility that oil from the spill will be carried further afield, such as up the east coast of the United States.

Bane and Seim are marine sciences professors in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Impact on the environment/marine ecology

Joel Fodrie, Ph.D., can address estuarine fisheries and habitats throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico. He currently has research projects going on in the Gulf, where he has studied the population dynamics of fishes since 2006.

• Fodrie’s research includes conducting large-scale, summer to fall fish surveys throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico, from the Florida panhandle to the Louisiana coast. He will be heading to the Gulf in mid-June and again in September to sample estuarine fisheries. He will be based at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab where he has conducted his research over the past four years.
• His study of fish and habitat data will be available as “baseline data” for examining the effects of the oil spill on fishery production in the Gulf. His research is scheduled to continue over the next two years and should provide information on the impact of the accident.
• In addition to these targeted experiments, he is beginning similar research in North Carolina.

Fodrie is a research assistant professor based at UNC’s Institute for Marine Sciences in Morehead City, N.C.
Web page: http://marine.unc.edu/people/Faculty/fjfodrie

Michael Piehler, Ph.D., studies marshes and has also worked on the impacts of petroleum products on near shore ecosystems. He has published several papers on the effects of refined petroleum on native microbial communities and their potential to degrade petroleum hydrocarbons. His research covers a broad range of microbial systems including algae and bacteria living in both the sediments and water column.

• Is currently working on a project to assess spill effects on shallow water estuarine communities.
• Will be conducting a comparative oyster reef study from Florida to Virginia, including at some sites in the Gulf of Mexico. Due to the possibility that the spill could affect those sites, he and other scientists are gathering pre-spill data to help understand the impact of the oil on those oyster reefs.

Piehler is an assistant professor based at UNC’s Institute for Marine Sciences in Morehead City, N.C.
Web page: http://marine.unc.edu/people/Faculty/piehler

Andreas Teske, Ph.D., can discuss how tiny microbes present in sea water and on the ocean floor may be able to help clean up the oil spill. A microbial ecologist, Teske is an expert in microorganisms that live in extreme marine environments.

• Using dozens of water and sediment samples taken in the Gulf in the wake of the BP spill, Teske and other researchers are conducting various experiments, such as identifying which microbes are present, how they are responding to the spill and other tests.
• By testing artificial oil spills in the lab, researchers may be able to help determine strategies for triggering increases in microbial blooms that “eat” the oil.
• Teske can talk about how hydrocarbon-eating microbes break down oil spills; their impact on previous spills; and the impact of other spills on marine environments.
• Has several graduate students working in the Gulf on research expeditions studying the spill and the surrounding area.
• Is collaborating with other researchers at UNC and elsewhere to propose various novel “rapid response” projects that could play a role in monitoring and tackling the Gulf disaster.

Teske is a professor of marine sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Web page: http://marine.unc.edu/people/Faculty/teske

Legal implications of the disaster

Victor Flatt, J.D., can address the legal liability of BP, Transocean and Halliburton for the damage caused by the blowout and oil spill, and other related issues including:

• Potential criminal charges under the Oil Pollution Prevention Act.

• Procedural issues, such as which courts will likely hear the cases.
• The regulatory process and failures that allowed the licensing of the Deepwater Horizon rig.
• The legal/policy proposed changes in offshore drilling and liability that have occurred in the wake of the oil spill.
• The impact of the spill on likelihood and type of climate change regulation that may be coming.
• How the proposed legal changes in offshore oil drilling could affect the North Carolina coast and economy.

Flatt is Thomas F. and Elizabeth Taft Distinguished Professor in Environmental Law in the UNC School of Law and director of the Center for Law, Environment, Adaptation and Resources.
Web page: http://www.law.unc.edu/faculty/directory/flattvictorb/default.aspx

Understanding underwater oil plumes

Fluid dynamics experts Richard McLaughlin, Ph.D., and Roberto Camassa, Ph.D., can explain why the oil spewing out of the BP spill is forming underwater plumes that are not rising to the surface.

• This video from an experiment conducted in their laboratory (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cp6fHINQ94) shows how a leak from turbulent jet (such as with the Gulf spill) is trapped underwater when it reaches a level where water density changes; however, a leak from a less turbulent jet is not trapped, and the oil rises to the surface.
• Both researchers, along with students in their summer lab, have also analyzed video of the spill to estimate the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf.

McLaughlin and Camassa are mathematics professors in the College of Arts and Sciences. Camassa is also director of the Carolina Center for Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics.
Web pages: http://amath.unc.edu/RMM/RMM (McLaughlin); http://amath.unc.edu/Faculty/CamassaProfile (Camassa)

First-hand accounts of research expeditions

Luke McKay, marine science graduate student, can provide a first-hand account of one of the first research expeditions to visit the spill site and surrounding waters shortly after the disaster began to unfold. McKay is a second-year master’s student in Andreas Teske’s laboratory in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences.

• Spent several days aboard the RV Pelican in early May, helping gather water and sediment samples. McKay was called up at short notice while travelling across the country; he detoured to Louisiana and joined the expedition as a geochemistry/microbiology sampling expert and liaison to shore-based investigators.
• Can talk about the contamination he saw and the research carried out. McKay also took dozens of photographs during the expedition: samples are available at http://ar.gy/JT and http://ar.gy/JU; more are available upon request.
• He and other researchers, both faculty and students, are now analyzing and conducting various experiments on the samples. Their studies will help determine what is happening to the marine environment in the Gulf and offer possible clues to help tackle the disaster.
• Related website: http://sites.google.com/site/teskelab/Home/rapid-response-cruise-1

To find additional experts on related topics that are not included on this tip sheet, please go to our searchable experts database. https://s4.its.unc.edu/UNCExperts/uncexperts/expertsform

Carolina in the News

Check out the recent media mentions of sustainability-related programs, practices, people at UNC:

Researching, acting on energy, environment (Column)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Energy and the environment are two of the toughest problems the world faces today. How do we use one without destroying the other? Carolina is a research university. It's our job to put the brilliant minds of our faculty and students to work coming up with solutions to these problems. And they are responding admirably.
Holden Thorp is chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Readers can contact him at holden_thorp@unc.edu.
Click here to read more.

Where Is the Oil Headed?
Science Magazine
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) currently tracks wind and tidal data in the gulf. That data has helped offer an initial, course-grained look at the likely path of the oil. ...Last month, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security quickly backed a proposal to use highly detailed supercomputer models to forecast how the oil will affect coastal areas. Over the past decade, modelers led by Clint Dawson of the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas, Austin; Rick Luettich of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and Joannes Westerink of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana developed a model, known as ADCIRC, to predict hurricane storm surges throughout the gulf.
Click here to read more.

State awards nearly three-quarters of a million dollars for clean fuel car promotion (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The N.C. Solar Center is distributing $734,384 to 16 grant recipients throughout the state to promote clean fuel and electric vehicles. The money, courtesy of the N.C. Department of Transportation, will largely be used to offset the cost of purchasing electric cars. ...The N.C. Department of Administration, Town of Chapel Hill, UNC Chapel Hill and RTI International will buy "neighborhood electric vehicles," or NEVs, as the two-seater buggies are known.
Click here to read more.

UNC study: Women, minorities still rare on boards of N.C. public
The Triangle Business Journal
North Carolina’s largest public companies have made scant progress in diversifying their boards of directors over the past few years, a new study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s law school concludes. Just 12.3 percent of board members serving the state’s 50 largest public companies are female, and a mere 7.1 percent are minorities, according to the survey. ...“It’s awfully slow improvement, and it’s almost meaningless,” says Lissa Broome, a UNC law professor who worked on the survey. “We’re going in the right direction, but it’s going to take forever to get there I think.”
Click here to read more.

Green Gardeners seeks volunteers
The Chapel Hill Herald
Interested in talking to other gardeners about their gardening successes, failures, and questions? The N.C. Botanical Garden invites you to join The Green Gardeners — special volunteers who offer help and advice to visitors, callers, and e-mailers for a short shift each weekday.
Click here to read more.

N.C. coast not worried about Gulf oil ... yet
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
Boaters, fishermen and tourists along the North Carolina coast said Friday that they remain hopeful that oil from the ongoing spill in the Gulf of Mexico doesn't stain the state's waters or beaches. ...The Duke Marine Laboratory and the Duke-University of North Carolina Oceanographic Consortium operate the Research Vessel Cape Hatteras, a 135-foot-long owned by the National Science Foundation.
Click here to read more.

The price of the pelican (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Boston Globe (Massachusetts)
...A study in the journal Science, conducted 14 years after the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound in 1989 and fouled 1,300 miles of Alaskan coastline, found that pink salmon, sea otters, harlequin ducks were either still dying or not reproducing at “astounding’’ rates. Exxon settled with the federal government and the state of Alaska in 1991 for $1 billion for environmental restoration, but lead researcher Charles Peterson of the University of North Carolina said toxic levels of oil from the disaster continued to contaminate the food chain for wildlife in “surprisingly large’’ hidden pools in sediment and underneath boulders.
Click here to read more.

UNC Researcher Uses Software To Track Oil Spill
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
Computer models designed to track the movement of water and hurricanes are now being used to chart the oil spill along the Gulf Coast. Director of the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences Rick Luettich worked with other researchers to create the hurricane charting technology to find out about their effects in areas like estuaries and sounds. Luettich says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uses models designed for scenarios taking place on the open ocean and are less suited for areas like the Gulf Coast.
Click here to read more.

-Thanks to UNC News Services for finding these great stories AND compiling the summaries! You can find more UNC media coverage and stories online at http://uncnews.unc.edu/