Fall Books:

Evt 201 - Environmental Science (Withgott & Brennan, Pearson, 2nd ed, ISBN 0-8053-0640-4)

Evt 206 - Intro to Environmental Compliance (Kubasek & Silverman, Pearson, 5th ed, ISBN 0-13-147921-0)

Evt 215 - Limnology (Gerald Mackie, Kendall Hunt, 2nd ed, ISBN 0-7575-0883-9)

Evt 224 - Environmental Chemistry Analysis* (Zumdahl & Decoste, Brooks/Cole, 7th ed, ISBN 978-0-538-73637-4)

Evt 225 - Best Management Practices (Shah, Blackwell, ISBN 1-4051-3557-3)

Evt 254 - Industrial Safety and Emergenct Response# (HMTRI, HMTRI, ISBN 1-58035-029-1)

* Lab dates for 224 are all day 8/27, 9/17, 10/22, 11/19, and 12/10
# If you are having a hard time finding the book for EVT 254 contact HMTRI directly (919-872-6601) and get the ECAT 240 book

2010 SC Envirothon Special Topics Training

I can't tell you how excited I was when I heard the Special Topic for this year's Envirothon. For those of you who aren't aware, the host state for the national competition gets to choose the Special Topic for the year. Last year we studies Biodiversity for the Competition in North Carolina. This year California chose "Protection of Groundwater Through Urban, Agricultural, and Environmental Planning". This is a topic that I harp on in every class that I teach...so I assumed that it would be an easy topic to prepare. I was wrong.

Once again this year I worked with my counterpart from across the hedge. The problem that we ran into was that this topic required a fairly substantial foundation of knowledge before the students could actually begin to understand the intricate interactions; the cause and effect. If you know anything about environmental studies you understand that it requires teasing apart complex juxtapositions of science, society, nature, and politics.

Well, enough ranting. What you really want is the video of the presentation that Jeff and I did at the Clemson Sandhills REC. I finally had to cut it into six smaller videos so that I could put it on YouTube. I apologize for the lowish quality. It was the best I could do with what I had. As always feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. Good luck training those students!

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Video 5

Video 6

Finally, I will get the Powerpoint up. Just as soon as I figure out how.

New Year’s Resolutions

Well, we made it. We are now well into 2010. I really don’t know the significance of that, other than the fact that we made it one more trip around the sun. That’s pretty good news, I guess. Of course if the Nostradamus seers are to be believed then we have a scant two years before the end of the world.
At any rate, we have a tradition of making resolutions at the beginning of the New Year. I don’t know how or why the tradition started, or even why we do it. I saw one statistic that 90% of all New Year’s Resolutions are dropped before February (remember that 96.374% of all statistics are made up on the spot). This is likely because most Americans resolve to lose weight (or some bad habit that they have held for the last two decades) and we rarely look at the root cause of what we are trying to get rid of. Occasionally we resolve to do something GOOD for the year, but these resolutions are often dropped because they were unreasonable in the first place. People usually try for the grand slam when all they need is a single to win the game. I have just two resolutions for the year:
1. Update this blog more often (I’m doing better – I only missed posting this on New Year’s Day by 10 days)
2. Finally put in that solar water heater that I have been talking about since I bought my house (about a decade ago – dang I’m getting old)
Somebody once told me that the best way to keep a resolution is to tell people about it…that way they can hold you to it. Well I have now blogged my intentions, so the two of you that read this can hold me to them. In the mean time, why don’t you resolve to do a little something for the planet? It doesn’t have to be a grand slam (like building that LEED Platinum house that you’ve wanted all these years). You may only need a single to win the game (try a programmable thermostat, Bring Your Own Bags, turn off lights, walk when you can, plant a few trees, pick up some trash). Go ahead and tell me your resolutions…I’ll try to hold you to them.