Tag Archives | Scientific American

Images of Sustainability at APUS – Solar Array

By on April 22, 2013 in APUS Sustainability Efforts, Earth Day, Green Building, Renewable Energy, Sustainability in Higher Education

In celebration of Earth Day, this week we will share a series of images representative of tangible sustainability efforts at American Public University System.  Happy Earth Day…everyday!

 

Solar ArrayThe American Public University System (APUS) solar array is the largest solar array in West Virginia.  The array contains 1,660 solar panels and doubles as a covered parking lot for staff.  Situated next to the university’s Finance Center (a 105,000 square-foot structure built to LEED Gold standards and currently in the certification process), the array provides approximately 50% of the total energy needed for that building. … Read the rest

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Assessing Your Personal Carbon Footprint

By on June 28, 2010 in APUS Sustainability Efforts, Sustainability General, Sustainability in Higher Education, Sustainability Resources

by Beth Gray

The growing concern over climate change has led many companies to consider how to alter their own practices in order to mitigate their carbon emissions.  Several large corporations have taken significant steps toward assessing and taking steps to lessen their environmental impact.  Walmart, for example, has a very well-developed sustainability initiative and has a page on their corporate website devoted to tracking how the company is doing in its attempt to have a less negative impact on the environment.  General Electric also has a sustainability initiative and publishes an annual sustainability report to track the company’s progress in achieving a greener future.  Nearly 700 institutions of higher education (including American Public University System) have also pledged to assess their carbon footprints through signing the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) and take dramatic measures toward eventually achieving carbon neutrality. 

… Read the rest

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China’s Three Gorges Dam: An Epic Battle Between Man and Nature

By on May 17, 2010 in Current Events

 

by Beth Gray

 

China’s Three Gorges Dam project is marred in controversy and serves as an example of man’s attempt to harness nature and nature’s stubborn resistance.  Officially approved in 1992 by the Chinese government, the project was originally conceived by China’s most famous Nationalist leader, Sun Yat-sen, decades earlier in 1919.  The project is intended to harness the power of the unruly Yangtze River which in the last 2,000 years has flooded the towns and villages that rest on its banks more than 1,000 times.  Several of these floods have caused tremendous loss of life.  Perhaps the most significant of these floods occurred in 1931 when more than 300,000 lost their lives in the cities of Nanjing and Wuhan and another 40,000,000 were left homeless.  While the Yangtze’s flooding has caused much death and destruction, the Chinese have recognized that there may be value in the river’s power.… Read the rest

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