Learning Green, Living Green: Frostburg State University's Sustainability Initiative

Overview
   -- FSU Facts
   -- Background
   --
Terms

Climate Action Plan

Awakening the Dreamer

Achievements

LGLG Initiative
   --
ACUPCC

Recycling @ FSU
   -- Recyclemania

Individual Actions

Earth Week
    -- Focus Frostburg

Photo Gallery

 

 

 

 


Overview - Background

Background Topics:
What is Sustainability?
Climate Change and Global Warming
Greenhouse Gases
Global Warming versus Ozone Depletion
The Carbon Footprint
Carbon Offsetting and Emissions Trading

 

What is Sustainability?
The first formal definitions of sustainability came from the 1987 Brundtland report, originating from a commission within the United Nations. Sustainability is "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The Brundtland report introduced the concepts of environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability as separate frameworks for consideration.

  • Environmental sustainability deals with the maintenance of natural resources.
  • Economic sustainability deals with the maintenance of capital.
  • Social Sustainability deals with the maintenance of communities and societies through cooperation rather than competition.

A fourth concept was later identified for consideration: Human sustainability deals with the maintenance of individual health and life.

Climate Change and Global Warming
Climate change refers to the variation in the Earth's global climate or in regional climates over time. These changes can be caused by processes internal to the Earth, external forces (e.g. variations in sunlight intensity) or, more recently, human activities. Climate change can include global cooling as well as global warming.
In terms of popular usage, global warming often refers to temperature increases which are primarily caused by human action.

Greenhouse Gases
Greenhouse gases are components of the atmosphere that contribute to the greenhouse effect. These gases can come from natural sources or from human activity.

In the order of relative abundance, Earth's atmospheric greenhouse gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.

Global Warming versus Ozone Depletion
Global warming comes from release of certain gases which enhance the natural greenhouse effect. These gases trap solar heat much as a greenhouse or blanket would, and cause temperature of the lower atmosphere to rise.

The ozone layer in the lower stratosphere protects Earth by shielding it from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. Halocarbons act as catalysts to kick off a chain reaction that destroys ozone. A thinning ozone layer means more ultraviolet radiation, which can harm living things (for example, by causing skin cancer in humans).

Global warming and ozone depletion are related because the halocarbons which destroy the ozone layer are also potent greenhouse gases.

The Carbon Footprint
A carbon footprint measures the impact that humans, organizations, or other entities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide. The carbon footprint is similar to a greenhouse gas emissions inventory. However, the carbon footprint measures emissions over the lifetime of an entity, whereas the emissions inventory is measured at increments (usually on an annual basis). The carbon footprint is calculated using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method.

Carbon Offsetting and Emissions Trading
Carbon offsetting is voluntary mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. The most popular offset methods include the use of renewable energy, funding energy conservation, methane capture, and tree planting.

Emissions trading is the idea of paying for emission reductions elsewhere instead of reducing one's own emissions.

Controversies exist regarding carbon offsetting and emissions trading. These practices do not necessarily encourage conservation and there exists a lack of transparency in these industries. An entity should reduce its own emissions as much as possible before resorting to carbon offsets or emissions trading.

 

The information on this page is gathered from various sources. You can learn more about the topics listed on this page by viewing these web sites:

The World Commission on Environment and Development
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The Natural Resource Defense Council
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
CarbonFund.org

 

 


recycle

USM News:

USM goes green: Chancellor launches system-wide sustainability initiative.

"This initiative ... will make the university system a national leader in institutional responses to climate change".

View news release


 

 

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