 |
|
|||
|
2007 MESSAGE
FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT QUICK
LOOKS WARM
NEW WORLD Sidebar: Are oceans becoming acidic? LANGUAGE
911 THE
BEACH BUILDERS THE
LOST LEWIS AND CLARK BIRDS
AS BAROMETERS A
GROWING MYSTERY STUDENT
SCIENTIST INVITING
DISCOVERY Sidebar: Neurons get their close-up Sidebar: Core facility models molecules UNDERSTANDING
A HAZARDOUS WORLD Sidebar: Useful tools: toxic agents and air pollution Sidebar: Genes, the environment and you
ARCHIVE
Cover: An illustration of UM's Main Hall tower bathed in the glow of a fictitious smoldering Earth.
Vision is published annually by The University of Montana Office of the Vice President for Research and Development and University Relations. It is printed by UM Printing & Graphic Services. PUBLISHER: Daniel J. Dwyer. MANAGING EDITOR AND GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Cary Shimek. PHOTOGRAPHER: Todd Goodrich. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Brianne Burrowes, Brenda Day, Judy Fredenberg, Joan Melcher, Rita Munzenrider, Patia Stephens and Alex Strickland. WEB DESIGN: Patia Stephens. EDITORIAL OFFICE: University Relations, Brantly Hall 330, Missoula, MT 59812, 406-243-5914. MANAGEMENT: Judy Fredenberg, Office of the Vice President for Research and Development, 116 Main Hall, Missoula, MT 59812, 406-243-6670.
|
 |
||
| Warm
New World -- Continued History has shown that societal changes often are tested first at universities, and UM as an institution has taken initial steps toward confronting climate change and becoming more environmentally responsible. In 2002 President George Dennison signed the Talloires Declaration, an agreement to introduce more environmental sustainability to higher education. At that time Dennison formed the 12-member Sustainable Campus Committee — made up of students, faculty and staff — to track UM participation in the agreement. The committee advises the president on environmental issues, organizes UM Earth Day events each year and provides Dennison an annual progress report. It maintains a Greening UM Web site. The committee grew busier this spring when UM became one of the first universities to join the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. A goal of the commitment is to become carbon neutral. “However
long that takes is anybody’s guess,” says Phil Condon, an
environmental studies associate professor who led the committee for several
years. “The commitment has deadlines. This year we are doing a greenhouse
gas inventory of campus. Then in early 2009 we hope to have Condon says most CO2 produced by UM likely comes from heating, lighting, people commuting to campus and the motor pool. Since nearly 300 institutions have now signed the Climate Commitment, there are many calculators and models available to help UM tally its carbon footprint. He says UM hired a half-time student sustainability coordinator a year ago to help campus work on its environmental issues. That person will assist with the greenhouse gas inventory and organize student interns who will form sustainability initiative teams to work across campus. “The committee also has proposed the Green Thread Initiative to get faculty training on bringing more sustainability ideas into the curriculum,” Condon says. “People have even talked about some sort of sustainability general education requirements for students. Because what we are talking about is a change in campus culture on every level.” One advantage UM has is that at least 14 campus buildings already use geothermal cooling and heating from groundwater. Laura Howe with Facilities Services says these include the new Skaggs research addition and journalism’s Anderson Hall, as well as the University Center and venerable Main Hall. Though UM’s motor pool doesn’t brim with hybrids yet, an orange tractor at the University’s Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society farm, located two miles from campus, has started smelling like french fries. That’s because the diesel tractor has been retrofitted to run on vegetable oil. PEAS instructor Josh Slotnick says the tractor is part of a research project comparing the performance of three Kubota tractors — one running on diesel, one on vegetable oil and another on a mix of both. “We are trying to become carbon neutral,” Slotnick says. “The project is measuring the wear and tear of different fuels on the tractors. With the vegetable oil, there was supposed to be a slight reduction in horsepower, but we haven’t noticed a change in performance.” He says the diesel program at the UM College of Technology retrofitted the tractors for different fuels, and the local Kubota dealership monitored the engines. The biofuel comes from Sustainable Systems in Culbertson, a company formed by UM alum Paul Miller. “It’s amazing that this vegetable oil comes from Montana,” Slotnick says. “If this works, grain growers might be able to harvest their own fuel.” Brian Kerns works on alternative energy projects for UM. He keeps hydrogen fuel cells and bags of recycled glass in his cabinet, and windmill pictures adorn his office wall. But what he really likes to talk about is his downdraft gasifier. Never heard of one? Kerns says resource-poor Sweden and Germany used the technology during World War II. Downdraft gasifiers take combustible material such as wood chips and heat them in the absence of oxygen. The material doesn’t burn but decomposes in a process called pyrolysis or dry distillation. This produces hydrogen and methane that can be burned in engines. And the process is self-perpetuating as long as you keep adding material to burn. Kerns used a $1 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to buy a gasifier this summer. He intends to tour the boxy device around the biomass-rich Rocky Mountain region. “I’m investigating ways to use it in the forest when you are doing logging operations,” he says. “This could potentially power the operation while it gets rid of slash. It needs between 300 and 900 pounds of wood chips to run a day.” Kerns and his colleague Paul Williamson have worked for years to get the University more engaged in alternative energy education. This has resulted in a campus teaching site that includes a 10-kilowatt wind turbine, a hydrogen fuel cell and solar panels. The duo also helped create UM’s new Energy Technology Degree Program, which prepares students for careers in traditional, emerging and alternative energy programs. Kerns said the two-year COT program is fairly unique because it is offered completely online. UM partners in the effort include community colleges in Butte, Glendive and Miles City. He says the new program is about preparing students for a future that involves climate change. “When we were doing our research for this new degree, I didn’t really see a comprehensive alternative energy program out there,” Kerns says. “I think we really need a multipronged strategy to attack climate change, and this degree offers a lot of options. It also shows there are some positive things going on out there, and that it’s not all doom and gloom.” Perhaps it’s a program for people who have reached Running’s fifth stage of climate grief: acceptance. And now it’s time to get to work.
|
|
Cary
Shimek,
Managing Editor |
|
 |
