For many first-year students, freshman orientation can be an overwhelming experience. They’re confronted with so many new faces and personalities, so many different responsibilities and places to navigate, and on top of everything is the challenge of meeting and making new friends.
Although I try to ride my bike to work a few days a week all year ‘round, spring is the time when I really get motivated. It’s finally light when I go to work and when I head for home. In the daylight I feel a little safer and there’s more to enjoy on my ride – dramatic skies, spring blossoms, ducklings at Green Lake, and parades of joggers, dog-walkers, and families out for a stroll. The ride can still be a bit chilly, but I don’t need as many layers or as much determination as it takes to ride in the middle of winter.
Urban Forests in our region are expected to suffer negative impacts due to climate change. At the same time, they play an integral role in mitigating the effects of climate change by reducing temperatures, sequestering carbon, and capturing stormwater runoff from increases in precipitation. The 6th Annual Urban Forest Symposium, hosted by Plant Amnesty and the University of Washington, takes an in-depth look at climate change and considers the impact to the urban forests in our region.
Network with representatives of environmentally minded campus units, learn who won this year’s Husky Green Awards and watch a “Conservation Runway” fashion show during Earth Day activities Tuesday, April 22, on the HUB lawn.
The activities are the centerpiece of more than two weeks of activities for the campus surrounding Earth Day 2014.
As spring begins to show hints of emerging, plunge back into the cold with Polar Science Weekend at Pacific Science Center.
The 9th annual celebration of snow and ice, organized by museum and the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory, features UW glaciologists, biologists and climate experts. But it also brings in other community members, including local artists, photographers and zookeepers who focus on polar environments.
7 p.m., Feb.18 | Neptune Theater
Ten experts on the natural world will each have 20 slides and less than six minutes to tell us what they’re learning about the biggest dam removal/ecological restoration project on the planet — the removal of two dams on the Elwha River in the Olympic National Forest. The evening, presented by the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, will feature guest host Ranae Holland, the skeptical scientist on Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot” series and a fisheries biologist who has researched the Elwha River.
Beginning today, the University of Washington is competing in RecycleMania—the national competition in which college campuses compete over eight weeks to see which can reduce, reuse and recycle the most on-campus waste. The UW will take on Pac-12 rivals WSU, ASU and Stanford, among other universities nationwide.
As the Northwest considers proposals to build ship terminals to export more U.S. coal to Asia, a University of Washington Bothell team took an unusual route to measuring the air-quality hazard from trains carrying coal to the coast. Unable to fund the project through traditional sources, they went online and found 271 people who were willing to make an average donation of $75 to have experts answer the question.
Climate change was the core topic of conversation on Wednesday night when Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and City Council candidate Kshama Sawant spoke to students in Miller Hall. Councilmember Mike O’Brien also made a short appearance.
Divest UW and Confronting Climate Change, co-sponsors of the event, endorse both candidates and sought their support for their five-part climate change initiative, which they recently proposed to the Board of Regents in October.