We are currently redeveloping the site for each topic area to hold current news and information about that topic and prompt discussion. Please check back soon!

December, 2011

Mattapoisett -- Mary Jane Sorrentino, a self-employed sustainability consultant, is coming to the Mattapoisett library Thursday, February 18, to discuss the truth about the climate crisis and the meaningful steps people can take to bring about change.

Sustainability Almanac - February 9, 2012 - February 16, 2012 http://www1.umassd.edu/sustainability/almanac/2012_02_09.htm

Frustrated by years of delay in issuing reports, the Coalition for Buzzards Bay has retained a Boston law firm to help conduct an inquiry into the Massachusetts Estuaries Project, alleging mismanagement by the University of Massachusetts School of Marine Sciences and Technology.

UMass spokesman John Hoey, meanwhile, counters that a combination of factors has contributed to the delays: tight funding or no funding from the state in some years, the scientific challenges, and often flawed data of land use, particularly on the mainland side of Buzzards Bay. Data from Cape Cod was of higher quality because the Cape Cod Commission has been studying these issues for a long time, the parties agreed. Read more here.

Sustainability Almanac - February 9 - February 16, 2012 http://www1.umassd.edu/sustainability/almanac/2012_02_09.htm

BOSTON - Whether they got lost, sick or swam astray chasing food, 77 dolphins that beached on Cape Cod in recent weeks have died, the second time in three months New England has seen a mass of marine mammal deaths. Now, scientists are trying to figure out why. They're also researching whether there's any connection to a die-off this fall of 162 harbor seals, whose carcasses were found between northern Massachusetts and Maine.

Scientists later determined the seal deaths were linked to an influenza virus similar to one found in birds but never before seen in seals. In a letter earlier this month, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Rep. William Keating asked Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to investigate "any common cause" between the dolphin and seal deaths. Read more here.

Sustainability Almanac - February 2 - February 9, 2012 http://www1.umassd.edu/sustainability/almanac/2012_02_02.htm