Most incoming college students are becoming aware of the need for environmental protection and a way to ensure the healthy and long-standing existence of the human race on Earth. They are also aware that some of the biggest surges in job opportunities will be in these areas. For this reason, college programs in sustainability and environmental protection are becoming more readily available. Here are some of the top programs in this important field.

Sustainability is one of the fastest growing degree programs in the United States today. Much of the focus in a sustainability program will be on how human beings can promote the well-being of their species and environment over the long term. Students will study the environmental, social and economic factors relating to this goal.

There are many colleges and universities offering degrees in sustainability. As long as the school is accredited, the degree should provide a thorough background in all areas necessary to begin a career in this field. There are also very interesting subsets within sustainability studies. For example, The University of New Hampshire offers a degree in EcoGastronomy, in which students study sustainable agriculture and holistic nutrition. They receive hands-on experience in kitchens, farms and laboratories in order to learn how to create and prepare food in an agriculturally sustainable way.

Source: Google Images - renewableenergyworld.com

Students at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design can pursue majors in Green Interior Design. Here, they study how to create eco-friendly home and business interiors. They learn how to make homes more sustainable in the long-run and better for the environment in the short-run. They study LEED standards and practice redesigning buildings and making models of sustainable homes. They also work in the field, restoring historic Denver office buildings in order to make them more environmentally friendly.

Sustainable Tourism is another area of sustainability that should see a surge, as tourism is the world’s largest industry. Sustainable Tourism majors at East Carolina University will have the opportunity to study how to practice the business of tourism while preserving the environmental attributes of the vacation destination. Their studies relate to fields as wide-ranging as the arts, medicine, recreation and hospitality.

Environmental Studies is another degree that will become more popular with the advent of environmental awareness. Environmental studies is the study of human interaction with the environment and encompasses both the natural environment and the human-built environment. There are many colleges today offering environmental studies degrees.

The University of Pennsylvania has a program that allows students to earn a master’s degree in environmental studies and an MBA at the same time. This is especially relevant for students who would like to start their own sustainable or otherwise environmentally-related business. Also, Duke University offers a wide variety of environmental studies degrees, from Earth and Ocean Sciences to Master of Environmental Management in Energy and Environment.

Another great degree program for environmentally-minded students is Ecology. Ecology focuses on the scientific study of the small-scale biological relationships between organisms and their environments. One interesting school offering ecology programs is the College of the Atlantic. All enrolled students graduate with a major in Human Ecology, which is the study of the human relationship with the environment.

One thing tech-savvy students should also keep in mind is the amount of environmentally related majors that are offered today online. The Natural Resources Distance Learning Consortium aims to connect web-based learners with schools offering distance degrees in the environmental and natural resources studies. Some of the participating schools include Virginia Tech, University of Idaho, Utah State University, The University of Montana, Penn State, The University of Tennessee, Oregon State University, North Carolina State University, and Mississippi State University. Degree programs include Master of Natural Resources, Master of Geographic Information Systems, Master of Science in Resource Interpretation, Masters of Forest Biomaterials, Masters of Environmental Assessment, Masters of Science degree in Forestry, Masters of Parks, Recreation, Tourism and Sport Management, Master of Public Administration, and Master of Geospatial Information Science and Technology. And this is only a small selection of the types of degrees offered through distance education.

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com.

from Open Forum

Eco-terre-orism on the Rise

Haily Zaki (Inhabitat)

Oct 05, 2009 -

The national alert is high, code level…green.  Whether we notice it or not, a group of eco-terre-orists are waging a quiet war against neglect and scarcity of public space.   From London to Berlin, Miami to San Francisco and Southern California, a new breed of free range tillers are harnessing their inner flower (and fruit and veggie) power, sewing seeds for a greener tomorrow.  They hope that their hard (and surreptitious) work will help transform derelict soil and abandoned lots into floral and food outposts.

Manufacturing an urban seed ball Credit: Los Angeles Times

Their weapon of choice?  The seed ball.

Made from clay and compost mixed with seeds, these little life mines are tossed into neglected patches of urban landscape in the hopes that they will take root and explode with green over time.

Guerilla gardeners communicate and track their work via blogs like Guerilla Gardening.  Regional chapters like Los Angeles Guerilla Gardening are popping up, serving as resource to help coordinate eco-terre-orism efforts.  If one is considering joining the eco-crusade but can’t find a local chapter, there are guidebooks on how to prepare for seed bombing campaigns.  Some guerilla gardeners are transforming mild civil disobedience into a new form of public art, like Toronto’s Posterchild, who made an old flyer box into a perky and poignant urban marigold garden.  Some groups have formal names, likeTree-0-5 in Miami, and take credit for their work as they continue to explore creative ways to spruce up their cities.  Others move under cover of darkness and prefer to remain anonymous.

By day they lead normal lives.  By night (or weekend), they don their secret identities and deploy throughout the world’s cities, seed bombing, watering, and fertilizing.  It’s certainly not a crime to transform wasteland to green space, but if labeling urban gardening a guerilla enterprise helps make more people want to do plant seeds, than all the better.  It sounds more powerful anyhow to say that one is a guerilla, not just an activist.

North Pacific gyre source: OleLog

Nielsen reports: “Can you imagine what happens when marine garbage ends up in such a vortex? It will never leave it again, all plastic will circulate, new plastic come by and circulate. Ships continue dumping their garbage at sea, and you end up with the world’s biggest landfill in the Pacific Ocean.

“It has been given different names like the “Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches”, sometimes collectively called the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, the “Pacific Trash Vortex”, or for short the “Plastic Vortex”. The garbage patches present numerous hazards to marine life, fishing and tourism. Plastic constitutes 90 percent of all trash floating in the world’s oceans. The Eastern Garbage Patch floats between Hawaii and California and is first and foremost a Pacific island of rubbish twice the size of Texas and created from six million tonnes of discarded plastic. In the peer review journal, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Charles Moore estimated the plastic mass in the Pacific Gyre to be six times that of plankton.

“In June (10 June to 25 July 2009) a high-seas mission departs from San Francisco to map and explore the Pacific Garbage Patch. Scientists and conservationists on the expedition will begin attempts to retrieve and recycle this ugly monument to throwaway living in the middle of the North Pacific. With a crew of 30, the expedition, supported by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Brita, the water company, will use unmanned aircraft and robotic surface explorers to map the extent and depth of the plastic continent while collecting 40 tonnes of the refuse for trial recycling.

“Bottle caps, plastic bags and polystyrene floating with tiny plastic chips, worn down by sunlight and waves, disintegrates into smaller pieces. Suspended under the surface, these tiny fragments are invisible to ships and satellites trying to map the plastic continent. The damage caused by these tiny fragments is more insidious than strangulation, entrapment and choking by larger plastic refuse. The fragments act as sponges for heavy metals and pollutants until mistaken for food by small fish. The toxins then become more concentrated as they move up the food chain through larger fish, birds and marine mammals.”

We hope posts such as the one above from Mr. Nielsen helps end such wasteful, polluting nonsense.

Live Green Electronics Recycling Event
March 7, 2009
7:00 a.m. to noon

“Do your part to help the environment by recycling your old television, computer monitor and other used electronic equipment at the “Live Green Electronics Recycling Event” on Saturday, March 7th. This event provides a rare opportunity for residents to responsibly recycle old electronic equipment for FREE, thanks to generous sponsorships from LG Electronics, 9News, Comcast, Waste Management of Colorado, and the City and County of Denver. Electronics recycling is expensive and normal recycling costs average about $25 for a TV and $12 for a computer monitor.

“Responsible recycling of electronics helps to prevent lead and other chemicals from leaching into the groundwater and into our atmosphere. Televisions and computers monitors contain 4 to 8 pounds of lead each, as well as many other metals and toxic materials. Recycling old electronics also saves energy and valuable resources.

“Please note that you do not need to replace your television as a result of the February 17, 2009 switch to digital broadcasting. Only residents using an antenna with their television (either rooftop or “rabbit ears”) will be affected by this change and purchasing a converter box will prevent the need to replace a television. Televisions connected to Comcast cable, satellite or other pay TV services will not be affected. If you choose to replace your TV, take advantage of this one time opportunity to responsibly recycle for free.”

For more information and to find specific drop off locations visit www.9News.com and click on the Live Green section. For more information about recycling, visit www.DenverGov.org/DenverRecycles.

Jerome Ringo, Apollo Alliance President

Title of the RMSS speech:

The New Color of Green: A Collective Voice Towards Change.

Associate Research Scholar Yale University, Author, Lecturer, Motivational Speaker Boards: Al Gore’s Climate Advisory Panel / National Wildlife Federation / National Parks and Conservation Association / Florida A & M University School of the Environment / Sundance Channel “The Green” / Newsweek Magazine Advisory Panel on Climate Change.