dukenvironmentNICHOLAS SCHOOL OF THE ENVIRONMENT SPRING 2010

p.2CONTROVERSYmountains of

dukenvironmentis published twice a year by the Nicholas School of the Environment.

Editor Scottee Cantrell

Art Director Amy Chapman Braun

Senior Writer Tim Lucas

Contributing WritersMonte Basgall, Laura Ertel, Erica Rowell and Laura Cloak MEM’11

PhotographyChris Hildreth, Megan Morr and Les Todd, DukePhotography; Lissa Gotwals; Bret Frk; Noëlle Boucquey;Rhema Bjorkland; Zoe Meletis; Ari Friedlaender; Tali Triggand Scott Taylor

Student Assistant Laura Cloak MEM’11

Web Editors Stephanie Thirolle and Brian Johnson

Need to get in touch with dukenvironment?

Subscribe (free)Visit us online at nicholas.duke.edu/dukenvironmentOr e-mail dukenvironment@nicholas.duke.edu

Change of AddressE-mail dukenvironment@nicholas.duke.edu or call 919-613-8111

Editorial CommentsE-mail Scottee Cantrell at dukenvironment@nicholas.duke.edu

© Copyright 2010 The Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University

features

Mountains of Controversy

Nicholas School Team Collects andAssesses the Best Available Science on the Potential Ecological and Human Health Impacts of Mountaintop Removal

Noise Nightmare

What Effect Does Growing Cacophony ofUnderwater Sounds Have on MarineMammals? Doug Nowacek Urgently Worksto Create New Technologies That Will Tell Us

Is Long-term CO2 Storage an Option?

Duke Team Investigating the Potential of Saline Aquifers Says the Answer Seemsto be ‘Yes, and a Lot’

the log / school news

LEAF Award-winner Jackson Browne

Documenting the Environment Through Photography

Amory Lovins, One of Time’s “Heroes for OurPlanet,” Delivers First Duke Environment andSociety Lecture

Children’s Blood Lead Levels Linked to LowerScores on End-of-Grade Tests

Researchers to Study Effects of “Dead Zone” on Gulf Shrimp Fishery

Personally Speaking: The Many Carnivals of Copenhagen

Statistically Speaking

Duke Trustees Approve Creation of PhD Programin Environmental Policy

Treading in International Waters

Profeta Reappointed Director of Nicholas Institute

forum / dean’s page

King Coal or Clean Coal is Still Just Coal

action / student news

Student-Founded Green Wave Serves as an ‘Environmental Conscience’ for Duke Marine Lab

Duke Student’s Organization LaunchesOnline ‘Green’ College Directory

Nicholas School Students Pitch in to Relocate Turtles in Duke Gardens

sightings / alumni news

Building Relationships with the Land

MEM Alum Jeff Fisher and His PartnerCombine Consulting Expertise with RealEstate Investment to Help LandownersProtect Their Property for the NextGeneration

Career Matters

nature & nurture / giving

With Launch of ‘Blue Sky,’ the Sky is the Limit

monitor / upcoming events

AdministrationWilliam L. Chameides, Dean

Susan Lozier, Chair, Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences

Ram Oren, Chair, Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy

Cindy Van Dover, Chair, Division of Marine Science and Conservation, and Director,

Duke University Marine Laboratory

Emily M. Klein, Senior Associate Dean, Academics

Tim Profeta, Senior Associate Dean and Director, Nicholas Institute for Environmental

Policy Solutions

Chandra Christian, Associate Dean, External Affairs

James Haggard, Associate Dean, Finance and Administration

Prasad Kasibhatla, Associate Dean, International Programs

Scottee Cantrell, Assistant Dean, Marketing and Communications

Susan Gerberth-Jones, Assistant Dean, Information Technology

Karen Kirchof, Assistant Dean, Career Services

Cynthia Peters, Assistant Dean, Enrollment Services

Board of VisitorsLynn E. Gorguze T'81, Cameron Holdings Corp., La Jolla, CA (Chair)

J. Blake Sullivan MF'89, Sullivan Forestry Consultants Inc., Americus, GA (Vice Chair)

John H. Adams L'62, H'05, Natural Resources Defense Council, New York, NY

H. Ross Arnold III T'67, Quest Capital Corp., Atlanta, GA

Ann M. Bartuska, USDA Forest Service, Washington, DC

Lawrence B. Benenson T'89, Benenson Capital Partners LLC, New York, NY

Brent F. Blackwelder T'64, P'98, P'01, Friends of the Earth, Washington, DC

Lawrence E. Blanchard T'72, Dermatology Associates of Virginia, Richmond, VA

Robert F. Bonnie MEM/MF'94, Environmental Defense, Washington, DC

Thomas F. Darden, Cherokee Investment Partners LLC, Raleigh, NC

Abigail Field T'02, Little Red School House, New York, NY

Philip Froelich, Florida State University Department of Oceanography, Tallahassee, FL

F. Daniel Gabel Jr. T'60, P'02, Hagedorn & Co., New York, NY

Jeffrey L. Gendell T'81, Tontine Partners, Greenwich, CT

John S. Hahn T'74, P'06, P'10, Mayer Brown LLP, Washington, DC

Cindy Horn, CP Management Co., Woodland Hills, CA

Jeffrey Johnson P'09, Chapel Hill, NCTodd C. Jorn T'76, P'11, Pfife Hudson Group, New York, NY

Sandra Taylor Kaupe, Palm Beach, FL

Edgar Maeyens Jr. H'72, Park Avenue Dermatology Clinic, Coos Bay, OR

Mark D. Masselink T'79, P'08, P'11, Moore Capital Management, New York, NY

Brian N. McDonald MF'84, ILIM Group, St. Petersburg, Russia

J. Thomas McMurray E'76, G'78, PhD'80, P'08, Marine Ventures Foundation, Jackson Hole, WY

Thurston Moore - Hunton & Williams, Richmond, VA

J.K. Nicholas T'89, B'96, Chelsea Clocks, Chelsea, MA

Frank W. Peterman, The Wilderness Society, Atlanta, GA

Robert Pinkard P'10, Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers, Washington, DC

Randolph K. Repass E'66, West Marine, Watsonville, CA

Sally-Christine Rodgers, Watsonville, CA

Truman T. Semans Jr. T'90, B'01, Green Order Inc., New York, NY

Ruth G. Shaw P'09, Charlotte, NC

Arthur L. Smith T'74, P'03, Triple Double Advisors LLC, Houston, TX

Brad G. Stanback T'81, Winterberry Farm, Canton, NC

Fred Stanback, Jr. T'50, P'81, P'82, Salisbury, NC

Charles Wegner IV T'79, The Jel Sert Co., West Chicago, IL

Wayne F. Wilbanks T'82, Wilbanks, Smith & Thomas Asset Management, Norfolk, VA

Alumni CouncilMichael Pentony E'87, MEM'96, NOAA Fisheries, Gloucester, MA (President)

Leslie Jamka MEM'99, Hazardous Substances Research Center, Manhattan, KS (President-Elect)

Heather Nixon Stevenson MEM'83, McGuire Woods LLP, Richmond, VA (Past President)

Claire Agre T'02, West 8, New York, NY

Kirsten Cappel MEM'04, U.S. EPA, Washington, DC

J. Marc Dreyfors MEM'90, The Forest Foundation, Durham, NC

Julia Elmore MEM'06, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, Asheboro, NC

Brent Fewell MEM'91, United Water, Harrington Park, NJ

Christopher Galik MEM'02, Climate Change Policy Partnership, Durham, NC

Robert Jacobs T'84, Classic Hydrocarbons Inc., Ft. Worth, TX

Marian Keegan MF'82, Hemlock Farms Community Association, Lords Valley, PA

Jonathan Kelsey MEM'97, NOAA Office of Legislative Affairs, Washington, DC

Emily Lindow MEM'01, NOAA Office of International Affairs, Washington, DC

Courtney Lorenz MEM'06, Skanska USA, Durham, NC

Bruce Molnia MA'69, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA

Richard Pandullo MEM'81, Trinity Consultants, Morrisville, NC

Mark Pfefferle MEM'88, Montgomery County Planning Department, Silver Spring, MD

Robert Piotrowski G'74, Marathon Oil (ret.), Biltmore Lake, NC

Emily Duncan Rodgers MEM'06, Environmental Resources Management, Denver, CO

Gwynne Rogers MEM/MBA'02, Natural Marketing Institute, Harleysville, PA

Anna Stark MEM'05, U.S. EPA Energy Star, Washington, DC

Cynthia Van Der Wiele MEM/MF'98, Sustainable Communities Development, Chatham County, NC

Tali Trigg, Student Representative, Durham, NC

spring 10 contents

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20

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10

11

19

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24

26

31

32

a note on the magazine

Because of the slow economyand our ongoing commitmentto preserve our environmentand forge a sustainablefuture, we have streamlinedand shortened the print version of the magazine.Some familiar sections suchas class notes and faculty/staff notes are revised monthlyand will be in the online version. Come see the new andupdated online magazine at

nicholas.duke.edu/dukenvironment

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15

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on the coverAerial view of mountaintop removal mining site in West Virginia.Photographer: MELISSA FARLOW/National Geographic Stock

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dukenvironmentis published twice a year by the Nicholas School of the Environment.

Editor Scottee Cantrell

Art Director Amy Chapman Braun

Senior Writer Tim Lucas

Contributing WritersMonte Basgall, Laura Ertel, Erica Rowell and Laura Cloak MEM’11

PhotographyChris Hildreth, Megan Morr and Les Todd, DukePhotography; Lissa Gotwals; Bret Frk; Noëlle Boucquey;Rhema Bjorkland; Zoe Meletis; Ari Friedlaender; Tali Triggand Scott Taylor

Student Assistant Laura Cloak MEM’11

Web Editors Stephanie Thirolle and Brian Johnson

Need to get in touch with dukenvironment?

Subscribe (free)Visit us online at nicholas.duke.edu/dukenvironmentOr e-mail dukenvironment@nicholas.duke.edu

Change of AddressE-mail dukenvironment@nicholas.duke.edu or call 919-613-8111

Editorial CommentsE-mail Scottee Cantrell at dukenvironment@nicholas.duke.edu

© Copyright 2010 The Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University

features

Mountains of Controversy

Nicholas School Team Collects andAssesses the Best Available Science on the Potential Ecological and Human Health Impacts of Mountaintop Removal

Noise Nightmare

What Effect Does Growing Cacophony ofUnderwater Sounds Have on MarineMammals? Doug Nowacek Urgently Worksto Create New Technologies That Will Tell Us

Is Long-term CO2 Storage an Option?

Duke Team Investigating the Potential of Saline Aquifers Says the Answer Seemsto be ‘Yes, and a Lot’

the log / school news

LEAF Award-winner Jackson Browne

Documenting the Environment Through Photography

Amory Lovins, One of Time’s “Heroes for OurPlanet,” Delivers First Duke Environment andSociety Lecture

Children’s Blood Lead Levels Linked to LowerScores on End-of-Grade Tests

Researchers to Study Effects of “Dead Zone” on Gulf Shrimp Fishery

Personally Speaking: The Many Carnivals of Copenhagen

Statistically Speaking

Duke Trustees Approve Creation of PhD Programin Environmental Policy

Treading in International Waters

Profeta Reappointed Director of Nicholas Institute

forum / dean’s page

King Coal or Clean Coal is Still Just Coal

action / student news

Student-Founded Green Wave Serves as an ‘Environmental Conscience’ for Duke Marine Lab

Duke Student’s Organization LaunchesOnline ‘Green’ College Directory

Nicholas School Students Pitch in to Relocate Turtles in Duke Gardens

sightings / alumni news

Building Relationships with the Land

MEM Alum Jeff Fisher and His PartnerCombine Consulting Expertise with RealEstate Investment to Help LandownersProtect Their Property for the NextGeneration

Career Matters

nature & nurture / giving

With Launch of ‘Blue Sky,’ the Sky is the Limit

monitor / upcoming events

AdministrationWilliam L. Chameides, Dean

Susan Lozier, Chair, Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences

Ram Oren, Chair, Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy

Cindy Van Dover, Chair, Division of Marine Science and Conservation, and Director,

Duke University Marine Laboratory

Emily M. Klein, Senior Associate Dean, Academics

Tim Profeta, Senior Associate Dean and Director, Nicholas Institute for Environmental

Policy Solutions

Chandra Christian, Associate Dean, External Affairs

James Haggard, Associate Dean, Finance and Administration

Prasad Kasibhatla, Associate Dean, International Programs

Scottee Cantrell, Assistant Dean, Marketing and Communications

Susan Gerberth-Jones, Assistant Dean, Information Technology

Karen Kirchof, Assistant Dean, Career Services

Cynthia Peters, Assistant Dean, Enrollment Services

Board of VisitorsLynn E. Gorguze T'81, Cameron Holdings Corp., La Jolla, CA (Chair)

J. Blake Sullivan MF'89, Sullivan Forestry Consultants Inc., Americus, GA (Vice Chair)

John H. Adams L'62, H'05, Natural Resources Defense Council, New York, NY

H. Ross Arnold III T'67, Quest Capital Corp., Atlanta, GA

Ann M. Bartuska, USDA Forest Service, Washington, DC

Lawrence B. Benenson T'89, Benenson Capital Partners LLC, New York, NY

Brent F. Blackwelder T'64, P'98, P'01, Friends of the Earth, Washington, DC

Lawrence E. Blanchard T'72, Dermatology Associates of Virginia, Richmond, VA

Robert F. Bonnie MEM/MF'94, Environmental Defense, Washington, DC

Thomas F. Darden, Cherokee Investment Partners LLC, Raleigh, NC

Abigail Field T'02, Little Red School House, New York, NY

Philip Froelich, Florida State University Department of Oceanography, Tallahassee, FL

F. Daniel Gabel Jr. T'60, P'02, Hagedorn & Co., New York, NY

Jeffrey L. Gendell T'81, Tontine Partners, Greenwich, CT

John S. Hahn T'74, P'06, P'10, Mayer Brown LLP, Washington, DC

Cindy Horn, CP Management Co., Woodland Hills, CA

Jeffrey Johnson P'09, Chapel Hill, NCTodd C. Jorn T'76, P'11, Pfife Hudson Group, New York, NY

Sandra Taylor Kaupe, Palm Beach, FL

Edgar Maeyens Jr. H'72, Park Avenue Dermatology Clinic, Coos Bay, OR

Mark D. Masselink T'79, P'08, P'11, Moore Capital Management, New York, NY

Brian N. McDonald MF'84, ILIM Group, St. Petersburg, Russia

J. Thomas McMurray E'76, G'78, PhD'80, P'08, Marine Ventures Foundation, Jackson Hole, WY

Thurston Moore - Hunton & Williams, Richmond, VA

J.K. Nicholas T'89, B'96, Chelsea Clocks, Chelsea, MA

Frank W. Peterman, The Wilderness Society, Atlanta, GA

Robert Pinkard P'10, Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers, Washington, DC

Randolph K. Repass E'66, West Marine, Watsonville, CA

Sally-Christine Rodgers, Watsonville, CA

Truman T. Semans Jr. T'90, B'01, Green Order Inc., New York, NY

Ruth G. Shaw P'09, Charlotte, NC

Arthur L. Smith T'74, P'03, Triple Double Advisors LLC, Houston, TX

Brad G. Stanback T'81, Winterberry Farm, Canton, NC

Fred Stanback, Jr. T'50, P'81, P'82, Salisbury, NC

Charles Wegner IV T'79, The Jel Sert Co., West Chicago, IL

Wayne F. Wilbanks T'82, Wilbanks, Smith & Thomas Asset Management, Norfolk, VA

Alumni CouncilMichael Pentony E'87, MEM'96, NOAA Fisheries, Gloucester, MA (President)

Leslie Jamka MEM'99, Hazardous Substances Research Center, Manhattan, KS (President-Elect)

Heather Nixon Stevenson MEM'83, McGuire Woods LLP, Richmond, VA (Past President)

Claire Agre T'02, West 8, New York, NY

Kirsten Cappel MEM'04, U.S. EPA, Washington, DC

J. Marc Dreyfors MEM'90, The Forest Foundation, Durham, NC

Julia Elmore MEM'06, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, Asheboro, NC

Brent Fewell MEM'91, United Water, Harrington Park, NJ

Christopher Galik MEM'02, Climate Change Policy Partnership, Durham, NC

Robert Jacobs T'84, Classic Hydrocarbons Inc., Ft. Worth, TX

Marian Keegan MF'82, Hemlock Farms Community Association, Lords Valley, PA

Jonathan Kelsey MEM'97, NOAA Office of Legislative Affairs, Washington, DC

Emily Lindow MEM'01, NOAA Office of International Affairs, Washington, DC

Courtney Lorenz MEM'06, Skanska USA, Durham, NC

Bruce Molnia MA'69, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA

Richard Pandullo MEM'81, Trinity Consultants, Morrisville, NC

Mark Pfefferle MEM'88, Montgomery County Planning Department, Silver Spring, MD

Robert Piotrowski G'74, Marathon Oil (ret.), Biltmore Lake, NC

Emily Duncan Rodgers MEM'06, Environmental Resources Management, Denver, CO

Gwynne Rogers MEM/MBA'02, Natural Marketing Institute, Harleysville, PA

Anna Stark MEM'05, U.S. EPA Energy Star, Washington, DC

Cynthia Van Der Wiele MEM/MF'98, Sustainable Communities Development, Chatham County, NC

Tali Trigg, Student Representative, Durham, NC

spring 10 contents

2

16

20

2

7

10

11

19

22

24

26

31

32

a note on the magazine

Because of the slow economyand our ongoing commitmentto preserve our environmentand forge a sustainablefuture, we have streamlinedand shortened the print version of the magazine.Some familiar sections suchas class notes and faculty/staff notes are revised monthlyand will be in the online version. Come see the new andupdated online magazine at

nicholas.duke.edu/dukenvironment

11

12

14

14

15

15

22

16 20 8 26 32

on the coverAerial view of mountaintop removal mining site in West Virginia.Photographer: MELISSA FARLOW/National Geographic Stock

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dukenvironment 2

From top left: Aerial view of West Virginia mountaintop removal mining site; Marie Lynn Miranda and David Hinton survey an inactive settling pond in West Virginia; West Virginia mountaintop removal mining site; Rich Di Giulio and Emily Bernhardt. Photo at right by Megan Morr;aerial photos of West Virginia mines by Melissa Farlow/National Geographic Stock.

A mountain of controversy surrounds the coal-miningmethod known as mountaintop

removal. In the practice, companies blastaway entire mountainsides, truck theextracted coal ore to processing facilities,and dump the rubble in neighboring hollows, creating large “valley fills” that bury streams. The largest fills canapproach 800 feet in height and swallowmore than a mile of streambed.

Proponents argue that the method,now widely used in the coalfields of central Appalachia, is safer, faster andcheaper than underground mining. Theysay its ecological impacts are localizedand short-lived—a necessary tradeoff toprovide the region with much-neededjobs and the nation with energy—andthat regulations in the Clean Water Actand the Surface Mining Control andReclamation Act require companies tomitigate damage to streams and restorethe mountaintops when mining ends.

A landmark paper published by 12leading ecologists, hydrologists and engineers this January in Science, however,concludes that these reparations barelyscratch the surface.

Mine-related contaminants persist instreams well below valley fills, the paper’sauthors report. Biological communities arebeing altered, and biodiversity reduced.Studies cited in the paper suggest thatchronic exposure to pollution in mining-contaminated air and water is associatedwith numerous human health concerns.

The paper, co-written by EmilyBernhardt, assistant professor of biogeo-chemistry at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, represents the firstattempt to collect and assess the bestavailable science on the potential ecologicaland human health impacts of mountain-top removal. But it’s only a start,Bernhardt says. There has been no comprehensive study or mapping of the downstream and cumulative impactsof the practice. Mountains of additionalevidence remain unearthed—buried in the sediments and waters of theremote region.

“The current regulatory frameworktreats mountaintop removal as if it was a local disturbance and ignores anyimpacts on downstream or downwindecosystems,” she says.

“Some areas of southern WestVirginia have more than 20 percent oftheir surface area within surface mines.The water-quality effects of all this activity are additive; the more mines andprocessing facilities you have, the moreeffects you see, and the farther down-stream mining-related pollution is likelyto extend.”

Bernhardt has joined eight otherDuke faculty members in an ambitioustwo-year, $1.5 million initiative to mapthe extent of mountaintop removal inthe most heavily affected basins insouthern West Virginia, and assess itspotential impacts on ecological andhuman health. The initiative is funded

by the Nicholas School, through the generous support of Fred and AliceStanback of Salisbury, N.C.

The initial focus is addressing ecologicalimpacts, says project leader Richard DiGiulio, professor of environmental toxicology, but studies of human healthimpacts will commence shortly.

“We’re concerned both with moun-taintop removal itself and the processingof the coal ore, which uses a lot of waterand solvents,” Di Giulio says. Formermine sites are being included in thestudy, he explains, because “even shut-down mines and processing facilities can still have impacts.”

Last summer, a team of NicholasSchool faculty members and studentsconducted a two-day field trip to southernWest Virginia to survey affected ecosystems near mines and processingfacilities—some still in operation, somelong abandoned—and collect water andsediment samples.

Marie Lynn Miranda, associate professor of environmental sciences and policy, and her team of geospatialmapping experts at the NicholasSchool are now integrating data collected from the trip with informationfrom dozens of disparate studies,maps, reports, mining records, permitapplications, geological surveys andother documents to map the extent ofpast, present and future mountaintopremoval and coal processing activity in the region.

CONTROVERSYby Tim Lucas

NICHOLAS SCHOOL TEAM COLLECTS AND ASSESSES THE BEST AVAILABLE SCIENCE ON THE POTENTIAL ECOLOGICAL AND HUMAN HEALTH IMPACTS OF MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL

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dukenvironment 2

From top left: Aerial view of West Virginia mountaintop removal mining site; Marie Lynn Miranda and David Hinton survey an inactive settling pond in West Virginia; West Virginia mountaintop removal mining site; Rich Di Giulio and Emily Bernhardt. Photo at right by Megan Morr;aerial photos of West Virginia mines by Melissa Farlow/National Geographic Stock.

A mountain of controversy surrounds the coal-miningmethod known as mountaintop

removal. In the practice, companies blastaway entire mountainsides, truck theextracted coal ore to processing facilities,and dump the rubble in neighboring hollows, creating large “valley fills” that bury streams. The largest fills canapproach 800 feet in height and swallowmore than a mile of streambed.

Proponents argue that the method,now widely used in the coalfields of central Appalachia, is safer, faster andcheaper than underground mining. Theysay its ecological impacts are localizedand short-lived—a necessary tradeoff toprovide the region with much-neededjobs and the nation with energy—andthat regulations in the Clean Water Actand the Surface Mining Control andReclamation Act require companies tomitigate damage to streams and restorethe mountaintops when mining ends.

A landmark paper published by 12leading ecologists, hydrologists and engineers this January in Science, however,concludes that these reparations barelyscratch the surface.

Mine-related contaminants persist instreams well below valley fills, the paper’sauthors report. Biological communities arebeing altered, and biodiversity reduced.Studies cited in the paper suggest thatchronic exposure to pollution in mining-contaminated air and water is associatedwith numerous human health concerns.

The paper, co-written by EmilyBernhardt, assistant professor of biogeo-chemistry at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, represents the firstattempt to collect and assess the bestavailable science on the potential ecologicaland human health impacts of mountain-top removal. But it’s only a start,Bernhardt says. There has been no comprehensive study or mapping of the downstream and cumulative impactsof the practice. Mountains of additionalevidence remain unearthed—buried in the sediments and waters of theremote region.

“The current regulatory frameworktreats mountaintop removal as if it was a local disturbance and ignores anyimpacts on downstream or downwindecosystems,” she says.

“Some areas of southern WestVirginia have more than 20 percent oftheir surface area within surface mines.The water-quality effects of all this activity are additive; the more mines andprocessing facilities you have, the moreeffects you see, and the farther down-stream mining-related pollution is likelyto extend.”

Bernhardt has joined eight otherDuke faculty members in an ambitioustwo-year, $1.5 million initiative to mapthe extent of mountaintop removal inthe most heavily affected basins insouthern West Virginia, and assess itspotential impacts on ecological andhuman health. The initiative is funded

by the Nicholas School, through the generous support of Fred and AliceStanback of Salisbury, N.C.

The initial focus is addressing ecologicalimpacts, says project leader Richard DiGiulio, professor of environmental toxicology, but studies of human healthimpacts will commence shortly.

“We’re concerned both with moun-taintop removal itself and the processingof the coal ore, which uses a lot of waterand solvents,” Di Giulio says. Formermine sites are being included in thestudy, he explains, because “even shut-down mines and processing facilities can still have impacts.”

Last summer, a team of NicholasSchool faculty members and studentsconducted a two-day field trip to southernWest Virginia to survey affected ecosystems near mines and processingfacilities—some still in operation, somelong abandoned—and collect water andsediment samples.

Marie Lynn Miranda, associate professor of environmental sciences and policy, and her team of geospatialmapping experts at the NicholasSchool are now integrating data collected from the trip with informationfrom dozens of disparate studies,maps, reports, mining records, permitapplications, geological surveys andother documents to map the extent ofpast, present and future mountaintopremoval and coal processing activity in the region.

CONTROVERSYby Tim Lucas

NICHOLAS SCHOOL TEAM COLLECTS AND ASSESSES THE BEST AVAILABLE SCIENCE ON THE POTENTIAL ECOLOGICAL AND HUMAN HEALTH IMPACTS OF MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL

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While Miranda and her crew tacklethe mapping, a team of Duke chemists—comprised of Avner Vengosh, associateprofessor of earth and ocean sciences;Heather Stapleton, associate professor ofenvironmental chemistry, Lee Fergusonassociate professor of environmental sciences and engineering; and Helen Hsu-Kim, assistant professor of environmentalengineering—are fanning out over theregion to conduct extensive sampling of streams and sediments.

They’re checking for heavy metals,organics and other contaminants that act as markers linking water quality tosource contamination from mines andprocessing plants.

Sulfate content is one of the preferred markers for mountaintopremoval, Di Giulio notes. Sulfate is easily weathered out of exposed coalminerals and then leaches into drainingstreams. Natural sulfate levels in mountainstreams should be between 20 and 30milligrams per liter. Headwater streams

with more than 50 milligrams per literare typically affected by upstream mining.

Electrical conductivity—a measure ofthe ionic strength of water—is anotheruseful marker the chemists are lookingfor, particularly in headwaters. Fartherdownstream, high conductivity in watercould be caused by salts in urban runoff,“but the only explanation for it in undeveloped headwater streams isbecause of high rates of rock weatheringfrom upstream mines,” Bernhardt says.

While the chemists measure andidentify the markers and untangle theirsources, toxicologists on the team havebeen focusing on what’s happening toorganisms in the affected ecosystems.

“We’re doing chemical analyses oforganisms collected in the field to seewhat they’re taking up—what trace metals or organics are showing up atabnormal levels,” Di Giulio explains.

To determine which contaminants,or which combinations of them, are the“bad actors” that cause harm, Di Giulio

and fellow toxicologists David Hinton,Nicholas Professor of EnvironmentalQuality, and Joel Meyer, assistant professor of environmental toxicology,are running a battery of laboratory tests on model organisms, replicating the chemical makeup of sediment andwater samples collected in the field.

“We’re looking at acute effects suchas death, but also at more subtle effects,such as DNA damage,” Di Giulio says.Experiments are being run on five modelorganisms—nematodes, zebrafish, killifish, medaka fish and mayfly larvae—to test a full range of responses andtoxic sensitivities.

In-stream community analysis ofboth affected and unaffected streams,conducted by Bernhardt and her lab,rounds out the research agenda, andprovides insights into the physical andbiological changes taking place in thestreams themselves.

A particularly stark example ofecosystem damage in the region was the

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From top left: Undergraduate student Karin English sampling stream water and sediment; team members collect samples from an inactive settling pond; maps produced by the Nicholas School research team show locations of mining activity and cancer rates in southern W.Va.

recent fish kill in Dunkard Creek, a tributary of the Gauley River in WestVirginia’s Monongahela Range.

A fish kill on the creek last fallextended over 30 miles. West Virginiastate biologists determined it was causedby toxins released by the golden brownalgae, Prymnesium parvum, a speciesnormally seen only in brackish or saltwater. The only reason the algae couldhave been in a freshwater Appalachianstream, the biologists reasoned, wasbecause of the addition of significantamounts of mining salts.

Prior to the fish kill, the WestVirginia Department of EnvironmentalProtection had cited Consol Energy, alocal mine operator, multiple times forviolations of chloride standards in flowsreleased from their coal treatment facility.Data from the state’s Department ofEnvironmental Protection documentedsulfate concentrations as high as 10,000milligrams per liter and chloride concen-trations as high as 6,000 milligrams per

liter. The creek had been officially listedas biologically impaired because of highconcentrations of salts for several years.

Another example of mountaintopremoval’s far-reaching ecological impactswas included in the Science “PolicyForum” article Bernhardt co-authored in January. It cited deformed fish andtoxic levels of selenium in the MudRiver Reservoir in Lincoln County,another part of West Virginia withheavy mining activity.

“There’s a saying: ‘Dilution is thesolution to pollution.’ But the more mineswe build, especially in the same water-shed or on the same headwaters, the lessdilution we have,” Bernhardt says.

“To have streams with high seleniumor aluminum levels, or to have a saltwater-loving golden brown algae bloom in anAppalachian stream, is a sign that we’veshifted the chemical composition ofstreams to a high degree,” she says.“Alkaline mine drainage has raised thepH of streams from 7 to 8, pushed the

chemical composition to resemble brackish water, and introduced a varietyof trace metals with individual and combined toxicity.”

It’s no surprise that streams contami-nated with high concentration of miningwaste can support fewer sensitive aquaticorganisms, or that ecological shifts aretaking place, she says. “The goldenbrown algae bloom in Dunkard Creekraises questions about how pollutingstream habitats may open up opportunitiesfor invasive species to take hold.”

In addition to determining biologicalchanges, Bernhardt hopes to use theStanback funding to work with otherresearchers and assess physical andchemical changes in affected streambeds.

“At the site of the valley fills andmountaintop removal, we see streambedscovered in metal-rich precipitates—alayer of mineral deposits sort of like the scum that forms on your sink fromhard water,” she says. In some cases, the precipitates actually cement the

TO HAVE STREAMS WITH HIGH SELENIUM OR ALUMINUM LEVELS, OR TO HAVE A SALTWATER-LOVING GOLDEN BROWN ALGAE BLOOM IN ANAPPALACHIAN STREAM, IS A SIGN THAT WE’VE SHIFTED THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF STREAMS TO A HIGH DEGREE EMILY BERNHARDT

“”

TOTAL CANCER RATESBY COUNTY (1979-2004)& MINE PERMITS,WEST VIRGINIA

LOCATIONS OF MININGACTIVITY AND NICHOLASSCHOOL SAMPLE AND CONTROL SITESSOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA

WE’RE LOOKING AT ACUTE EFFECTS SUCHAS DEATH, BUT ALSO AT MORE SUBTLEEFFECTS, SUCH AS DNA DAMAGERICH DI GIULIO

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dukenvironment 4

While Miranda and her crew tacklethe mapping, a team of Duke chemists—comprised of Avner Vengosh, associateprofessor of earth and ocean sciences;Heather Stapleton, associate professor ofenvironmental chemistry, Lee Fergusonassociate professor of environmental sciences and engineering; and Helen Hsu-Kim, assistant professor of environmentalengineering—are fanning out over theregion to conduct extensive sampling of streams and sediments.

They’re checking for heavy metals,organics and other contaminants that act as markers linking water quality tosource contamination from mines andprocessing plants.

Sulfate content is one of the preferred markers for mountaintopremoval, Di Giulio notes. Sulfate is easily weathered out of exposed coalminerals and then leaches into drainingstreams. Natural sulfate levels in mountainstreams should be between 20 and 30milligrams per liter. Headwater streams

with more than 50 milligrams per literare typically affected by upstream mining.

Electrical conductivity—a measure ofthe ionic strength of water—is anotheruseful marker the chemists are lookingfor, particularly in headwaters. Fartherdownstream, high conductivity in watercould be caused by salts in urban runoff,“but the only explanation for it in undeveloped headwater streams isbecause of high rates of rock weatheringfrom upstream mines,” Bernhardt says.

While the chemists measure andidentify the markers and untangle theirsources, toxicologists on the team havebeen focusing on what’s happening toorganisms in the affected ecosystems.

“We’re doing chemical analyses oforganisms collected in the field to seewhat they’re taking up—what trace metals or organics are showing up atabnormal levels,” Di Giulio explains.

To determine which contaminants,or which combinations of them, are the“bad actors” that cause harm, Di Giulio

and fellow toxicologists David Hinton,Nicholas Professor of EnvironmentalQuality, and Joel Meyer, assistant professor of environmental toxicology,are running a battery of laboratory tests on model organisms, replicating the chemical makeup of sediment andwater samples collected in the field.

“We’re looking at acute effects suchas death, but also at more subtle effects,such as DNA damage,” Di Giulio says.Experiments are being run on five modelorganisms—nematodes, zebrafish, killifish, medaka fish and mayfly larvae—to test a full range of responses andtoxic sensitivities.

In-stream community analysis ofboth affected and unaffected streams,conducted by Bernhardt and her lab,rounds out the research agenda, andprovides insights into the physical andbiological changes taking place in thestreams themselves.

A particularly stark example ofecosystem damage in the region was the

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From top left: Undergraduate student Karin English sampling stream water and sediment; team members collect samples from an inactive settling pond; maps produced by the Nicholas School research team show locations of mining activity and cancer rates in southern W.Va.

recent fish kill in Dunkard Creek, a tributary of the Gauley River in WestVirginia’s Monongahela Range.

A fish kill on the creek last fallextended over 30 miles. West Virginiastate biologists determined it was causedby toxins released by the golden brownalgae, Prymnesium parvum, a speciesnormally seen only in brackish or saltwater. The only reason the algae couldhave been in a freshwater Appalachianstream, the biologists reasoned, wasbecause of the addition of significantamounts of mining salts.

Prior to the fish kill, the WestVirginia Department of EnvironmentalProtection had cited Consol Energy, alocal mine operator, multiple times forviolations of chloride standards in flowsreleased from their coal treatment facility.Data from the state’s Department ofEnvironmental Protection documentedsulfate concentrations as high as 10,000milligrams per liter and chloride concen-trations as high as 6,000 milligrams per

liter. The creek had been officially listedas biologically impaired because of highconcentrations of salts for several years.

Another example of mountaintopremoval’s far-reaching ecological impactswas included in the Science “PolicyForum” article Bernhardt co-authored in January. It cited deformed fish andtoxic levels of selenium in the MudRiver Reservoir in Lincoln County,another part of West Virginia withheavy mining activity.

“There’s a saying: ‘Dilution is thesolution to pollution.’ But the more mineswe build, especially in the same water-shed or on the same headwaters, the lessdilution we have,” Bernhardt says.

“To have streams with high seleniumor aluminum levels, or to have a saltwater-loving golden brown algae bloom in anAppalachian stream, is a sign that we’veshifted the chemical composition ofstreams to a high degree,” she says.“Alkaline mine drainage has raised thepH of streams from 7 to 8, pushed the

chemical composition to resemble brackish water, and introduced a varietyof trace metals with individual and combined toxicity.”

It’s no surprise that streams contami-nated with high concentration of miningwaste can support fewer sensitive aquaticorganisms, or that ecological shifts aretaking place, she says. “The goldenbrown algae bloom in Dunkard Creekraises questions about how pollutingstream habitats may open up opportunitiesfor invasive species to take hold.”

In addition to determining biologicalchanges, Bernhardt hopes to use theStanback funding to work with otherresearchers and assess physical andchemical changes in affected streambeds.

“At the site of the valley fills andmountaintop removal, we see streambedscovered in metal-rich precipitates—alayer of mineral deposits sort of like the scum that forms on your sink fromhard water,” she says. In some cases, the precipitates actually cement the

TO HAVE STREAMS WITH HIGH SELENIUM OR ALUMINUM LEVELS, OR TO HAVE A SALTWATER-LOVING GOLDEN BROWN ALGAE BLOOM IN ANAPPALACHIAN STREAM, IS A SIGN THAT WE’VE SHIFTED THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF STREAMS TO A HIGH DEGREE EMILY BERNHARDT

“”

TOTAL CANCER RATESBY COUNTY (1979-2004)& MINE PERMITS,WEST VIRGINIA

LOCATIONS OF MININGACTIVITY AND NICHOLASSCHOOL SAMPLE AND CONTROL SITESSOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA

WE’RE LOOKING AT ACUTE EFFECTS SUCHAS DEATH, BUT ALSO AT MORE SUBTLEEFFECTS, SUCH AS DNA DAMAGERICH DI GIULIO

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streambed floor, and in all cases, theycontain much higher concentrations of trace metals than are normally instream water.

“There are known toxicities to selenium and aluminum in humans aswell as mayflies and fish,” she says.“Municipal water treatments don’t treatfor these sorts of things. And a lot ofpeople in this part of the country are on well water, so they’re not getting any treatment at all. Mining companiescould use reverse osmosis to preventthese pollutants from leaving the mines,but they’re not currently because it’s so expensive.”

Studies, cited in the Science paper,suggest that chronic exposure to pollutionin mining-contaminated air and water isassociated with learning disabilities andlower birth weights in children. Also,there is evidence of links with kidneydisease, breast cancers, lung disease and dental problems in adults. Fish containing high levels of the toxins

aren’t safe for human consumption. The challenge, Bernhardt says, is

making sense of this toxic stew. “There are a whole suite of contami-

nants that are elevated in the water andair. It could be that none of them areover the legal limit, but individually or collectively these contaminants aregenerating significant chemical stress for organisms living in, or drinking, contaminated water or breathing contaminated air,” she says.

Di Giulio says the Duke team willbroaden its scope in coming months toinclude more emphasis on these humanhealth impacts.

“We plan to get samples of wellwater and see what’s going on in it,” he says, “and use overlays on our mapsto show how far downstream the effectsof mountaintop removal are going.”

The faculty members and their teamsof PhD, masters and undergraduate students will publish their data in peer-reviewed papers. They’re already sharing

early findings at seminars and meetingslike the one-day symposium on“Mountaintop Coal Mining: HumanHealth & Ecological Impacts” heldApril 9 at Duke’s Searle Center. Thesymposium was hosted by the DukeSuperfund Research Center andIntegrated Toxicology and EnvironmentalHealth Program, with Stanback funding.

It’s a lot of work, Bernhardt says, but the results are worth it: “Having theopportunity to look at all these aspects ofmine-related environmental degradationsimultaneously will provide us with amuch better understanding of the linksbetween mining activities and ecosystemand human health. This understanding is vital,” she says, “for minimizingfuture, and mitigating past, mining-associated pollution.”

Tim Lucas is the Nicholas School’snational media relations and marketingspecialist.

online for more informationabout the award and events, go tonicholas.duke.edu/leaf

online > slideshow nicholas.duke.edu/wvcoal

< >

From top left: Helen Hsu-Kim, Emily Bernardt and Avner Vengosh collect samples;a mountaintop mining operation; Joel Meyer, David Hinton, postdoc Kevin Kwok andRich Di Giulio; Di Giulio and undergraduate student Karin English collect samples froman inactive settling pond. Photos to the left and right by Megan Morr.

Singer-songwriter and Rock and RollHall of Fame inductee Jackson Brownewill be the 2010 recipient of The DukeLEAF Award for Lifetime EnvironmentalAchievement in the Fine Arts. DukeUniversity’s Nicholas School will present the award to Browne, a socialand environmental justice advocate,April 17 on Duke’s campus.

Actor Robert Redford received theinaugural award, which was establishedby the Nicholas School in 2009 tohonor artists whose works have liftedthe human spirit by conveying our profound spiritual and material connectionto the Earth, thereby inspiring others to help forge a more sustainable futurefor all.

Browne was selected by the executivecommittee of the school’s Board ofVisitors, which cited “his extraordinarybody of work as a songwriter and musician that reminds us of the magicaland redemptive connection that existsbetween all peoples and the naturalworld, and of the mysteries of time anddistance that constrain our lives.” Inrecognition of this, as well as his “early,strong and untiring advocacy for theplanet,” Browne will be presented withthe LEAF award in a public ceremony at Page Auditorium during Duke AlumniReunion Weekend.

“Jackson Browne is no pretender.While inspiring a generation to work for a better life and a better future forour children through his music, he hasadvocated for environmental steward-ship and has a house that runs entirelyon wind and solar power,” said WilliamL. Chameides, dean of the NicholasSchool. “Browne exemplifies what theDuke LEAF Award is all about. We are

thrilled to have him come to the Dukecampus to receive the award.”

While in Durham, Browne will meetwith members of the Duke community.He will be accompanied by artistDianna Cohen, whose primary mediumis plastic shopping bags. A showing ofher multicolored wall hangings will beheld on campus during their visit.

Browne is listed by Rolling Stonemagazine as one of the most influentialsinger/songwriters of his generation. He is known for bringing the personaland political to his music with suchsongs as “Lives in the Balance,” “ForEveryman,” “The Pretender,” “Beforethe Deluge” and “The Drums of War.”

He has been honored with inductionsinto the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame(2004) and the Songwriter’s Hall ofFame (2007).

His legacy for social and environmentaljustices is almost as influential andlong-lasting as his music. He receivedthe NARM Harry Chapin HumanitarianAward in 2008, and was presented anhonorary Doctorate of Music in 2004 by Occidental College in Los Angeles for “a remarkable musical career thathas successfully combined an intenselypersonal artistry with a broader vision of social justice.” In 2002, he was thefourth recipient of the John SteinbeckAward, given to artists whose worksexemplify the environmental and socialvalues that were essential to theCalifornia-born author.

Browne has been dedicated to fighting nuclear energy since he foundedMusicians United for Safe Energy(MUSE) in 1979 with colleaguesGraham Nash, Bonnie Raitt and JohnHall. MUSE held a series of five No

Nukes concerts at Madison Square Gardenin New York City in the late 1970s.

In an interview with Rolling Stone’sDavid Fricke in 2008, Browne said,“We’re all in the same boat. That’salways been the subject of my songs.We only have a little time. It’s a mess,so you do everything you can.”

The inscription on the Duke LEAFAward reads, “Given to an artist whosework has lifted the human spirit by conveying our profound spiritual andmaterial connection to the Earth andthereby inspiring others to help forge a more sustainable future for all.”

photo courtesy of Danny Clinch

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jackson browne

streambed floor, and in all cases, theycontain much higher concentrations of trace metals than are normally instream water.

“There are known toxicities to selenium and aluminum in humans aswell as mayflies and fish,” she says.“Municipal water treatments don’t treatfor these sorts of things. And a lot ofpeople in this part of the country are on well water, so they’re not getting any treatment at all. Mining companiescould use reverse osmosis to preventthese pollutants from leaving the mines,but they’re not currently because it’s so expensive.”

Studies, cited in the Science paper,suggest that chronic exposure to pollutionin mining-contaminated air and water isassociated with learning disabilities andlower birth weights in children. Also,there is evidence of links with kidneydisease, breast cancers, lung disease and dental problems in adults. Fish containing high levels of the toxins

aren’t safe for human consumption. The challenge, Bernhardt says, is

making sense of this toxic stew. “There are a whole suite of contami-

nants that are elevated in the water andair. It could be that none of them areover the legal limit, but individually or collectively these contaminants aregenerating significant chemical stress for organisms living in, or drinking, contaminated water or breathing contaminated air,” she says.

Di Giulio says the Duke team willbroaden its scope in coming months toinclude more emphasis on these humanhealth impacts.

“We plan to get samples of wellwater and see what’s going on in it,” he says, “and use overlays on our mapsto show how far downstream the effectsof mountaintop removal are going.”

The faculty members and their teamsof PhD, masters and undergraduate students will publish their data in peer-reviewed papers. They’re already sharing

early findings at seminars and meetingslike the one-day symposium on“Mountaintop Coal Mining: HumanHealth & Ecological Impacts” heldApril 9 at Duke’s Searle Center. Thesymposium was hosted by the DukeSuperfund Research Center andIntegrated Toxicology and EnvironmentalHealth Program, with Stanback funding.

It’s a lot of work, Bernhardt says, but the results are worth it: “Having theopportunity to look at all these aspects ofmine-related environmental degradationsimultaneously will provide us with amuch better understanding of the linksbetween mining activities and ecosystemand human health. This understanding is vital,” she says, “for minimizingfuture, and mitigating past, mining-associated pollution.”

Tim Lucas is the Nicholas School’snational media relations and marketingspecialist.

online for more informationabout the award and events, go tonicholas.duke.edu/leaf

online > slideshow nicholas.duke.edu/wvcoal

< >

From top left: Helen Hsu-Kim, Emily Bernardt and Avner Vengosh collect samples;a mountaintop mining operation; Joel Meyer, David Hinton, postdoc Kevin Kwok andRich Di Giulio; Di Giulio and undergraduate student Karin English collect samples froman inactive settling pond. Photos to the left and right by Megan Morr.

Singer-songwriter and Rock and RollHall of Fame inductee Jackson Brownewill be the 2010 recipient of The DukeLEAF Award for Lifetime EnvironmentalAchievement in the Fine Arts. DukeUniversity’s Nicholas School will present the award to Browne, a socialand environmental justice advocate,April 17 on Duke’s campus.

Actor Robert Redford received theinaugural award, which was establishedby the Nicholas School in 2009 tohonor artists whose works have liftedthe human spirit by conveying our profound spiritual and material connectionto the Earth, thereby inspiring others to help forge a more sustainable futurefor all.

Browne was selected by the executivecommittee of the school’s Board ofVisitors, which cited “his extraordinarybody of work as a songwriter and musician that reminds us of the magicaland redemptive connection that existsbetween all peoples and the naturalworld, and of the mysteries of time anddistance that constrain our lives.” Inrecognition of this, as well as his “early,strong and untiring advocacy for theplanet,” Browne will be presented withthe LEAF award in a public ceremony at Page Auditorium during Duke AlumniReunion Weekend.

“Jackson Browne is no pretender.While inspiring a generation to work for a better life and a better future forour children through his music, he hasadvocated for environmental steward-ship and has a house that runs entirelyon wind and solar power,” said WilliamL. Chameides, dean of the NicholasSchool. “Browne exemplifies what theDuke LEAF Award is all about. We are

thrilled to have him come to the Dukecampus to receive the award.”

While in Durham, Browne will meetwith members of the Duke community.He will be accompanied by artistDianna Cohen, whose primary mediumis plastic shopping bags. A showing ofher multicolored wall hangings will beheld on campus during their visit.

Browne is listed by Rolling Stonemagazine as one of the most influentialsinger/songwriters of his generation. He is known for bringing the personaland political to his music with suchsongs as “Lives in the Balance,” “ForEveryman,” “The Pretender,” “Beforethe Deluge” and “The Drums of War.”

He has been honored with inductionsinto the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame(2004) and the Songwriter’s Hall ofFame (2007).

His legacy for social and environmentaljustices is almost as influential andlong-lasting as his music. He receivedthe NARM Harry Chapin HumanitarianAward in 2008, and was presented anhonorary Doctorate of Music in 2004 by Occidental College in Los Angeles for “a remarkable musical career thathas successfully combined an intenselypersonal artistry with a broader vision of social justice.” In 2002, he was thefourth recipient of the John SteinbeckAward, given to artists whose worksexemplify the environmental and socialvalues that were essential to theCalifornia-born author.

Browne has been dedicated to fighting nuclear energy since he foundedMusicians United for Safe Energy(MUSE) in 1979 with colleaguesGraham Nash, Bonnie Raitt and JohnHall. MUSE held a series of five No

Nukes concerts at Madison Square Gardenin New York City in the late 1970s.

In an interview with Rolling Stone’sDavid Fricke in 2008, Browne said,“We’re all in the same boat. That’salways been the subject of my songs.We only have a little time. It’s a mess,so you do everything you can.”

The inscription on the Duke LEAFAward reads, “Given to an artist whosework has lifted the human spirit by conveying our profound spiritual andmaterial connection to the Earth andthereby inspiring others to help forge a more sustainable future for all.”

photo courtesy of Danny Clinch

Concerned about toxins in the

environment,

Abby Bucher photograph

s Inuit mom . . .

> online slideshownicholas.duke.edu/doctheenv

Liz Turner’s post-card style photos invoke a spiritual connection to the land

Priya Khatri loves the natural world and brings it to her photos

cloudtops over mountains

- Yosemite

who can’t breastfeed her babybecause of contamination in fat ofhunted animals in the Artic

waterfall

documentingthe environment

Amy Cotters’ photos show how animals are true to their nature

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Carolina Tiger Rescue

8dukenvironment

Ann Field captured “missed connections”in her 9th Street Durham Photos

During the fall, students in Lisa Satterwhite’s ENV 172s class for undergraduates

examined through photographs the sustaining relationship between humans and the

natural world, focusing on efforts by scientists, photographers and activists to heal the

disconnect between our actions today and the consequences for generations to come.

In her photographs Kate Findlay-Shirrazfocues on the demise of bees

Concerned about toxins in the

environment,

Abby Bucher photograph

s Inuit mom . . .

> online slideshownicholas.duke.edu/doctheenv

Liz Turner’s post-card style photos invoke a spiritual connection to the land

Priya Khatri loves the natural world and brings it to her photos

cloudtops over mountains

- Yosemite

who can’t breastfeed her babybecause of contamination in fat ofhunted animals in the Artic

waterfall

documentingthe environment

Amy Cotters’ photos show how animals are true to their nature

SC

HO

OL

NE

WSthe log

Carolina Tiger Rescue

8dukenvironment

Ann Field captured “missed connections”in her 9th Street Durham Photos

During the fall, students in Lisa Satterwhite’s ENV 172s class for undergraduates

examined through photographs the sustaining relationship between humans and the

natural world, focusing on efforts by scientists, photographers and activists to heal the

disconnect between our actions today and the consequences for generations to come.

In her photographs Kate Findlay-Shirrazfocues on the demise of bees

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Children’s Blood Lead Levels Linked to Lower Scores on End-of-Grade Tests

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Researchers from Duke University,Florida State University and theNational Marine Fisheries Service havereceived a $702,700 four-year grantfrom the National Atmospheric andOceanic Administration (NOAA) to studythe effects of the increasingly severeseasonal “dead zone” in the Gulf ofMexico on the region’s shrimp fishery.

The dead zone, or hypoxic area,occurs every summer in coastal watersoff Louisiana and Texas at the height of the Gulf shrimp fishery, one of themost valuable single-species fisheries in the United States. It is the secondlargest hypoxic area worldwide—extendingover areas roughly about the size of New Jersey—and the largest oneaffecting a U.S. fishery.

Studies have linked the hypoxia toan oxygen-depleting algal bloom trig-gered by the flow of nutrient-rich runoffinto the Gulf, much of it from farms inthe Mississippi River watershed, whichdrains 41 percent of the continentalUnited States. But little is known about itseconomic effects on the shrimp fishery.

The new study will be the first direct investigation of these links, says Martin D. Smith, associate professor of environmental economics at Duke’sNicholas School.

Smith and his colleagues receivedthe $248,677 first-year installment of the four-year- grant from NOAA’sNorth Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem and Hypoxia Assessment Program(NGOMEX) last fall.

“We hypothesize that hypoxia hassubstantial effects on the fishery harvestand profits,” Smith says, “and thatthese effects are mediated in large partby the spatial dynamics of the fishery.”

Smith’s co-principal investigators onthe study are J. Kevin Craig, assistantscholar scientist at the FSU Coastal andMarine Laboratory in St. Teresa, Fla.;Lori Snyder Bennear, assistant professorof environmental economics and policyat the Nicholas School; and Jim Nance,a shrimp biologist at the NationalMarine Fisheries Service in Galveston,Texas. Craig received his PhD in ecologyfrom Duke in 2001 and served as assistant research scientist at theDuke University Marine Lab from 2002to 2007.

Researchers to Study Effects of “Dead Zone” on Gulf Shrimp Fishery

Energy visionary Amory Lovins, one of Time magazine’s “Heroes for OurPlanet,” talked before a packed houseat Duke University in November, takingthem step by step through a PowerPointoutlining profitable solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.

“The media offers a multiple choicetest that when clearly stated asks ‘Wouldyou rather die of climate change, oilwars, or perhaps, nuclear holocaust?’”Lovins said, “Of course a better answeris … ‘none of the above,’ and that’s theone we can choose if we just use energyin a way that saves money.”

Lovins, the 2009 Duke Environmentand Society lecturer, discussed “ProfitableSolutions for Climate, Oil and Proliferation,”before a standing-room-only audience in Love Auditorium at the Levine Science

Research Center. The event was sponsoredby the Nicholas School.

Smart companies know that savingenergy is cheaper and that it saves billions, he said.

A physicist by training, Lovins ischairman and chief scientist at theRocky Mountain Institute (RMI) inSnowmass, Colo., and chairman emeritusof Fiberforge Inc. He advises governmentsand major firms worldwide on advancedenergy and resource efficiency and hasled the technical redesign of more than$30 billion worth of facilities in 29 economic sectors to achieve greaterenergy efficiency at typically lower capital costs.

In recognition of his achievements,he has been awarded a MacArthurFellowship, 10 honorary doctorates,

the Benjamin Franklin and Happoldmedals, the Heinz, Lindbergh, RightLivelihood and World Technologyawards, and the Blue Planet, Volvo,Onassis, Nissan, Shingo and Mitchellprizes, among other international honors.

Lovins’ talk was part of an ongoingnew series instituted by William L.Chameides, dean of the NicholasSchool, to bring to Duke major playerswho are helping build a sustainablefuture. Chameides said he hopes the series will serve as a catalyst to“inspire and engage.”

Nicholas School blogger Tali TriggMEM’10, who interned at the RMI,talked about Lovins in his blog and in a video at nicholas.duke.edu/insider/ trenches/talisblog/national-treasure-amory-lovins.

Exposure to lead in early childhood significantly contributesto lower performances on end-of-grade (EOG) reading testsamong minority and low-income children, who historicallyare at higher risk for lead exposure, according to a study by researchers at Duke University and North Carolina Central University.

“We found a clear dose-response pattern between leadexposure and test performance, with the effects becomingmore pronounced as you move from children at the high endto the low end of the test-score curve,” said lead investigatorMarie Lynn Miranda, director of the Children’s EnvironmentalHealth Initiative (CEHI) at Duke’s Nicholas School.

“Given the higher average lead exposure experienced byAfrican-American children in the United States, our resultsshow that lead does in fact explain part of the observedachievement gap that blacks, those of low socioeconomicstatus and other disadvantaged groups continue to exhibit inschool performance in the U.S. education system, comparedto middle- and upper-class whites,” she said.

The study, published online in the peer-reviewed journalNeuroToxicology, linked data on blood lead levels from the North Carolina Childhood Lead Poisoning PreventionProgram surveillance registry to end-of-grade (EOG) readingtest scores for 4th graders in all 100 of the state’s counties.

Researchers used innovative methods, including the use

of a special statistical approach called quantile regression,to measure the contribution of lead exposure to decrementsin children’s EOG scores.

Their analyses revealed that early childhood exposure to lead accounts for between 7 percent and 16 percent ofthe average test-score decrement, with the larger decrementsassociated with higher blood lead levels.

In comparison, they found that the family’s poverty status,as indicated by enrollment in a free or reduced-price schoollunch program, accounts for 25 percent to 28 percent ofEOG decrements.

Parental education accounts for the largest portion of the drop, between 58 percent and 65 percent of the total.

“This demonstrates the particular vulnerabilities of socioeconomically and environmentally disadvantaged children,” said Miranda, who is an associate professor at the Nicholas School and in Duke’s Department ofPediatrics. “Children who experience these cumulativedeficits are especially disadvantaged when they enter theschool system.”

Miranda’s co-authors on the study are Dohyeong Kim ofCEHI and the Department of Public Administration at NorthCarolina Central University; Pamela Maxson and M. AliciaOverstreet Galeano of CEHI; and Jerome Reiter of Duke’sDepartment of Statistical Science.

online video & photosnicholas.duke.edu/deanseries

Amory Lovins, One of Time’s ‘Heroes for Our Planet,’ Delivers First Duke Environment and Society Lecture

THE DEAN’S SERIESDuke Environment and Society Lecture Series

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Children’s Blood Lead Levels Linked to Lower Scores on End-of-Grade Tests

dukenvironment 10

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Researchers from Duke University,Florida State University and theNational Marine Fisheries Service havereceived a $702,700 four-year grantfrom the National Atmospheric andOceanic Administration (NOAA) to studythe effects of the increasingly severeseasonal “dead zone” in the Gulf ofMexico on the region’s shrimp fishery.

The dead zone, or hypoxic area,occurs every summer in coastal watersoff Louisiana and Texas at the height of the Gulf shrimp fishery, one of themost valuable single-species fisheries in the United States. It is the secondlargest hypoxic area worldwide—extendingover areas roughly about the size of New Jersey—and the largest oneaffecting a U.S. fishery.

Studies have linked the hypoxia toan oxygen-depleting algal bloom trig-gered by the flow of nutrient-rich runoffinto the Gulf, much of it from farms inthe Mississippi River watershed, whichdrains 41 percent of the continentalUnited States. But little is known about itseconomic effects on the shrimp fishery.

The new study will be the first direct investigation of these links, says Martin D. Smith, associate professor of environmental economics at Duke’sNicholas School.

Smith and his colleagues receivedthe $248,677 first-year installment of the four-year- grant from NOAA’sNorth Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem and Hypoxia Assessment Program(NGOMEX) last fall.

“We hypothesize that hypoxia hassubstantial effects on the fishery harvestand profits,” Smith says, “and thatthese effects are mediated in large partby the spatial dynamics of the fishery.”

Smith’s co-principal investigators onthe study are J. Kevin Craig, assistantscholar scientist at the FSU Coastal andMarine Laboratory in St. Teresa, Fla.;Lori Snyder Bennear, assistant professorof environmental economics and policyat the Nicholas School; and Jim Nance,a shrimp biologist at the NationalMarine Fisheries Service in Galveston,Texas. Craig received his PhD in ecologyfrom Duke in 2001 and served as assistant research scientist at theDuke University Marine Lab from 2002to 2007.

Researchers to Study Effects of “Dead Zone” on Gulf Shrimp Fishery

Energy visionary Amory Lovins, one of Time magazine’s “Heroes for OurPlanet,” talked before a packed houseat Duke University in November, takingthem step by step through a PowerPointoutlining profitable solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.

“The media offers a multiple choicetest that when clearly stated asks ‘Wouldyou rather die of climate change, oilwars, or perhaps, nuclear holocaust?’”Lovins said, “Of course a better answeris … ‘none of the above,’ and that’s theone we can choose if we just use energyin a way that saves money.”

Lovins, the 2009 Duke Environmentand Society lecturer, discussed “ProfitableSolutions for Climate, Oil and Proliferation,”before a standing-room-only audience in Love Auditorium at the Levine Science

Research Center. The event was sponsoredby the Nicholas School.

Smart companies know that savingenergy is cheaper and that it saves billions, he said.

A physicist by training, Lovins ischairman and chief scientist at theRocky Mountain Institute (RMI) inSnowmass, Colo., and chairman emeritusof Fiberforge Inc. He advises governmentsand major firms worldwide on advancedenergy and resource efficiency and hasled the technical redesign of more than$30 billion worth of facilities in 29 economic sectors to achieve greaterenergy efficiency at typically lower capital costs.

In recognition of his achievements,he has been awarded a MacArthurFellowship, 10 honorary doctorates,

the Benjamin Franklin and Happoldmedals, the Heinz, Lindbergh, RightLivelihood and World Technologyawards, and the Blue Planet, Volvo,Onassis, Nissan, Shingo and Mitchellprizes, among other international honors.

Lovins’ talk was part of an ongoingnew series instituted by William L.Chameides, dean of the NicholasSchool, to bring to Duke major playerswho are helping build a sustainablefuture. Chameides said he hopes the series will serve as a catalyst to“inspire and engage.”

Nicholas School blogger Tali TriggMEM’10, who interned at the RMI,talked about Lovins in his blog and in a video at nicholas.duke.edu/insider/ trenches/talisblog/national-treasure-amory-lovins.

Exposure to lead in early childhood significantly contributesto lower performances on end-of-grade (EOG) reading testsamong minority and low-income children, who historicallyare at higher risk for lead exposure, according to a study by researchers at Duke University and North Carolina Central University.

“We found a clear dose-response pattern between leadexposure and test performance, with the effects becomingmore pronounced as you move from children at the high endto the low end of the test-score curve,” said lead investigatorMarie Lynn Miranda, director of the Children’s EnvironmentalHealth Initiative (CEHI) at Duke’s Nicholas School.

“Given the higher average lead exposure experienced byAfrican-American children in the United States, our resultsshow that lead does in fact explain part of the observedachievement gap that blacks, those of low socioeconomicstatus and other disadvantaged groups continue to exhibit inschool performance in the U.S. education system, comparedto middle- and upper-class whites,” she said.

The study, published online in the peer-reviewed journalNeuroToxicology, linked data on blood lead levels from the North Carolina Childhood Lead Poisoning PreventionProgram surveillance registry to end-of-grade (EOG) readingtest scores for 4th graders in all 100 of the state’s counties.

Researchers used innovative methods, including the use

of a special statistical approach called quantile regression,to measure the contribution of lead exposure to decrementsin children’s EOG scores.

Their analyses revealed that early childhood exposure to lead accounts for between 7 percent and 16 percent ofthe average test-score decrement, with the larger decrementsassociated with higher blood lead levels.

In comparison, they found that the family’s poverty status,as indicated by enrollment in a free or reduced-price schoollunch program, accounts for 25 percent to 28 percent ofEOG decrements.

Parental education accounts for the largest portion of the drop, between 58 percent and 65 percent of the total.

“This demonstrates the particular vulnerabilities of socioeconomically and environmentally disadvantaged children,” said Miranda, who is an associate professor at the Nicholas School and in Duke’s Department ofPediatrics. “Children who experience these cumulativedeficits are especially disadvantaged when they enter theschool system.”

Miranda’s co-authors on the study are Dohyeong Kim ofCEHI and the Department of Public Administration at NorthCarolina Central University; Pamela Maxson and M. AliciaOverstreet Galeano of CEHI; and Jerome Reiter of Duke’sDepartment of Statistical Science.

online video & photosnicholas.duke.edu/deanseries

Amory Lovins, One of Time’s ‘Heroes for Our Planet,’ Delivers First Duke Environment and Society Lecture

THE DEAN’S SERIESDuke Environment and Society Lecture Series

dukenvironment 12

by Tali Trigg MEM’10

I traveled to Copenhagen on Dec. 12, 2009, with a NicholasSchool and Nicholas Institute contingent hoping to get accessto the Bella Center, the conference hall hosting the mainevents of the UN climate conference. After two fruitlessattempts in the bitter Danish winter—standing in line forhours without food or water and getting nowhere—I joined the 20,000 or so people shuttered out: I decided tovisit KlimaForum. Run by just four paid staff, the alternativeconference accommodated 50,000 people without anyissues. As George Monbiot of The Guardian noted, “I knowwhich team I would put in charge of saving the planet.”

Activists had been clashing with the police throughout theconference, and after one protest by up to 40,000 people,more than 1,000 were arrested. It was after this event that Idecided to learn more. I ended up embedding myself with anactivist group and attended an odd cube of a meeting room,buried deep in a civic center surrounded by public swimmingpools. Here’s how I remember it ...

The room is innocuously named, “The Grey Room,” andthe imminent talk is titled, “Repression: Part 2.” Initially, the room is set up with a projector and chairs facing forward.I walk in. First person there. I am wearing a suit, but no tie. Thereis a whiteboard with a sign, “Free the Political Prisoners.”

A few people wander in and start milling about. My suitimmediately becomes more noticeable when a shaggily cladman stomps in and in a stentorian voice proclaims, “The situation is extreme.” The police have targeted the coordinatedstructure of the protesters, and it is not the violence employedthat is extreme, but the “pre-emptive arrests” of spokespeople,he says. “Thus,” he sighs, “without leadership, shall we forma circle?” Without hesitation, 40 people move their chairsinto a wide circle, putting their backs to the wall. The signsof efficiency and inclusive tendencies begin to show.

The room is at capacity, adding heat and a sense ofurgency to the air. A couple of Brazilian activists are sittingin, referred to as “experienced protectors of the Amazon.” A Paul McCartney look-alike is translating, moving easilybetween English and Portuguese. He is presented as a memberof La Via Campesina, Brazil’s “Landless Movement.” “Eventshere are fundamental for future organizations,” he says. Heexplains that Campesina’s organizational structure is different,partly because 30 activists were assassinated last year, butalso because Brazil does not really have a middle class. Thismakes me wonder: Do activists in the West represent themiddle class, or do activists represent no one but themselves

because of a civically unengaged middle class?Only days before this meeting, there had been a large

march with all sectors of society involved. This was widelyattended, but not widely reported upon perhaps because noviolence broke out. The Brazilian man stands up, exasperated,and says, “COP15 has turned into a police state legalized.” I note a petite girl standing at the door wearing a beret andscarf. This is when I start asking myself what I have walkedinto? Are we being guarded? From whom or what? Welcome to dissident central.

After days of being saturated in political intransigenceand corporate sugarcoated carbon credits at another side conference, one hosted by the International EmissionsTrading Association (IETA), I had decided to get a different perspective. By penetrating deep into the farthest corner ofthe KlimaForum, I found what I was looking for. Unfortunately,there was no real sense that anything else was happening inCopenhagen. This was the center of the universe. But it wasnot the only one. I had seen a few earlier in the week.

Back in the Grey Room, the notion of Scandinavia as ademocratic haven was being fiercely questioned. UN-accreditedpeople had reportedly been arrested. I hear about a U.K.lawyer arrested for 11 hours, put in a cage, just for having abike map. Enough stories start being shared that if only oneis true, there exists a darker, untold side of COP15.

An English barrister-turned-activist, wearing tight blackjeans and a red cardigan, starts speaking up, takes the lead,and demonstrates considerable organizational savvy. He talksabout how Northern Ireland was a training ground for publicorder control. “There is hope,” he says. “Our counter-strategy,”should be to use intelligence and creativeness (i.e., humanqualities), which is something the police cannot employ, headds with a smirk.

This alpha activist blames the media for many of theissues. “The media is addicted to the police… they can’t criticize them because their biggest source of news is thepolice.” Grumpily he turns to the Danes in the room anddeclares, “This state is rotten.” The Danes collectively apologize. “However,” he says, “Denmark is not Iran,” sorepression is done in a much more sophisticated manner.“We’re being oppressed because we’re a threat, which meanswe’re succeeding to some degree.”

I recognize a familiar American accent as two U.S. profes-sors declare their presence. One speaks of his experience inthe Black Panther Party and says that tactics of pre-emptivearrests are nothing new.

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman walks in, dressed in achlorophyll-green sweater and announces, “Tadyo [not sureabout the spelling] has been arrested.” The collective grunts.The woman describes how this leader was arrested whenentering the conference center. A Frenchman says this happened to their accredited leader as well. Four plainclothescops chased him down, threw him in a van, and took him to prison. He has been treated well, except for the chase, the Frenchman adds.

Other reports of people in prison start filtering in: two girlshave been put in prison and it will be four weeks before they

get to see a judge; 13 people are still in prison from acrossthe world. Interpretation of the law is severely harsh.

Organizationally speaking, the activists are really effective.There was an implicit, internal, yet democratic logic of organization and information sharing. No Groupthink, no inefficiencies, no suppression nor repression. Information isgathered and processed, decisions are mulled over collectively,and action is taken. And yet, who has the worst reputation at Copenhagen? Activists. Who got the worst coverage atCopenhagen? Activists. It is almost as if they got an MBA,but skipped the marketing classes.

I hear about “mobilizations for tomorrow” and a “swarming”at 7 p.m. at “Hopenhagen,” a corporate-funded exhibit of relevant technologies. I decide to stake it out if I have time.

One of the Americans professors pontificates, “Nonviolentdirect action may be proven right by history.” And in the backof my head I am thinking what the U.S. perception is of aprotester: protester = domestic extremist = terrorist.

Eventually we divide into smaller groups to answer keyquestions and report back to the collective in 15 minutes. My group is pretty gender- and nation-balanced: a 50 percentgender split with activists from Brazil, England, Ireland,Australia, America, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, and France; all in stark contrast to the IETA conference, which had about80 percent men and 80 percent Americans. A Dane in mygroup asks, “How do we get across that they [fill in your badguy] are using the police as a political tool?” Another membercomplains about perception and stresses that it is generatedby corporate media, so what else can be expected?

One of the activists in my breakout group says, “Violencecreates barriers in people’s minds.” There needs to be adirect and visceral link to your actions. Chaining yourself to a power plant is more effective than just smashing windowsof a bank. Some marketing knowledge starts seeping in after all.

I ask what the group’s reaction might be relative to tomorrow’s outcome? My question is promptly dismissed anddeemed irrelevant to the group. I then find out that theEnglish barrister does not know the name of the UN head.This is when I first started thinking about the many carnivalsof Copenhagen; one unaware of the other. Here I am in thecenter of the universe, the Disneyworld of activism, andmeanwhile, other corporate and political carnivals are puttingon their respective shows and going about their business,with no idea of what is happening here, and vice versa. Ifonly the crisp flakes of Danish snow could have brought somecollective awareness.

The Danes may not have known it, but COP15 divided thetown into the very same demarcations seen on geopoliticaland socio-cultural levels around the world. In the midst of aDanish snow bowl, carnivals set up across the town: corporationsbrought you in with demonstrations of profit-reaping carbondeals, diplomats spun yarns of new world orders and kudostrading, and activists were activating civic spirits and handingout empowerments pills. And in the meantime, no carnivallooked to the other, and the snow and hope of a climate dealboth melted away.

personally SPEAKING

The Many Carnivals of Copenhagen

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activist table

Hopenhagen

KlimaForum

My Stake Out

Rally Sign

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dukenvironment 12

by Tali Trigg MEM’10

I traveled to Copenhagen on Dec. 12, 2009, with a NicholasSchool and Nicholas Institute contingent hoping to get accessto the Bella Center, the conference hall hosting the mainevents of the UN climate conference. After two fruitlessattempts in the bitter Danish winter—standing in line forhours without food or water and getting nowhere—I joined the 20,000 or so people shuttered out: I decided tovisit KlimaForum. Run by just four paid staff, the alternativeconference accommodated 50,000 people without anyissues. As George Monbiot of The Guardian noted, “I knowwhich team I would put in charge of saving the planet.”

Activists had been clashing with the police throughout theconference, and after one protest by up to 40,000 people,more than 1,000 were arrested. It was after this event that Idecided to learn more. I ended up embedding myself with anactivist group and attended an odd cube of a meeting room,buried deep in a civic center surrounded by public swimmingpools. Here’s how I remember it ...

The room is innocuously named, “The Grey Room,” andthe imminent talk is titled, “Repression: Part 2.” Initially, the room is set up with a projector and chairs facing forward.I walk in. First person there. I am wearing a suit, but no tie. Thereis a whiteboard with a sign, “Free the Political Prisoners.”

A few people wander in and start milling about. My suitimmediately becomes more noticeable when a shaggily cladman stomps in and in a stentorian voice proclaims, “The situation is extreme.” The police have targeted the coordinatedstructure of the protesters, and it is not the violence employedthat is extreme, but the “pre-emptive arrests” of spokespeople,he says. “Thus,” he sighs, “without leadership, shall we forma circle?” Without hesitation, 40 people move their chairsinto a wide circle, putting their backs to the wall. The signsof efficiency and inclusive tendencies begin to show.

The room is at capacity, adding heat and a sense ofurgency to the air. A couple of Brazilian activists are sittingin, referred to as “experienced protectors of the Amazon.” A Paul McCartney look-alike is translating, moving easilybetween English and Portuguese. He is presented as a memberof La Via Campesina, Brazil’s “Landless Movement.” “Eventshere are fundamental for future organizations,” he says. Heexplains that Campesina’s organizational structure is different,partly because 30 activists were assassinated last year, butalso because Brazil does not really have a middle class. Thismakes me wonder: Do activists in the West represent themiddle class, or do activists represent no one but themselves

because of a civically unengaged middle class?Only days before this meeting, there had been a large

march with all sectors of society involved. This was widelyattended, but not widely reported upon perhaps because noviolence broke out. The Brazilian man stands up, exasperated,and says, “COP15 has turned into a police state legalized.” I note a petite girl standing at the door wearing a beret andscarf. This is when I start asking myself what I have walkedinto? Are we being guarded? From whom or what? Welcome to dissident central.

After days of being saturated in political intransigenceand corporate sugarcoated carbon credits at another side conference, one hosted by the International EmissionsTrading Association (IETA), I had decided to get a different perspective. By penetrating deep into the farthest corner ofthe KlimaForum, I found what I was looking for. Unfortunately,there was no real sense that anything else was happening inCopenhagen. This was the center of the universe. But it wasnot the only one. I had seen a few earlier in the week.

Back in the Grey Room, the notion of Scandinavia as ademocratic haven was being fiercely questioned. UN-accreditedpeople had reportedly been arrested. I hear about a U.K.lawyer arrested for 11 hours, put in a cage, just for having abike map. Enough stories start being shared that if only oneis true, there exists a darker, untold side of COP15.

An English barrister-turned-activist, wearing tight blackjeans and a red cardigan, starts speaking up, takes the lead,and demonstrates considerable organizational savvy. He talksabout how Northern Ireland was a training ground for publicorder control. “There is hope,” he says. “Our counter-strategy,”should be to use intelligence and creativeness (i.e., humanqualities), which is something the police cannot employ, headds with a smirk.

This alpha activist blames the media for many of theissues. “The media is addicted to the police… they can’t criticize them because their biggest source of news is thepolice.” Grumpily he turns to the Danes in the room anddeclares, “This state is rotten.” The Danes collectively apologize. “However,” he says, “Denmark is not Iran,” sorepression is done in a much more sophisticated manner.“We’re being oppressed because we’re a threat, which meanswe’re succeeding to some degree.”

I recognize a familiar American accent as two U.S. profes-sors declare their presence. One speaks of his experience inthe Black Panther Party and says that tactics of pre-emptivearrests are nothing new.

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman walks in, dressed in achlorophyll-green sweater and announces, “Tadyo [not sureabout the spelling] has been arrested.” The collective grunts.The woman describes how this leader was arrested whenentering the conference center. A Frenchman says this happened to their accredited leader as well. Four plainclothescops chased him down, threw him in a van, and took him to prison. He has been treated well, except for the chase, the Frenchman adds.

Other reports of people in prison start filtering in: two girlshave been put in prison and it will be four weeks before they

get to see a judge; 13 people are still in prison from acrossthe world. Interpretation of the law is severely harsh.

Organizationally speaking, the activists are really effective.There was an implicit, internal, yet democratic logic of organization and information sharing. No Groupthink, no inefficiencies, no suppression nor repression. Information isgathered and processed, decisions are mulled over collectively,and action is taken. And yet, who has the worst reputation at Copenhagen? Activists. Who got the worst coverage atCopenhagen? Activists. It is almost as if they got an MBA,but skipped the marketing classes.

I hear about “mobilizations for tomorrow” and a “swarming”at 7 p.m. at “Hopenhagen,” a corporate-funded exhibit of relevant technologies. I decide to stake it out if I have time.

One of the Americans professors pontificates, “Nonviolentdirect action may be proven right by history.” And in the backof my head I am thinking what the U.S. perception is of aprotester: protester = domestic extremist = terrorist.

Eventually we divide into smaller groups to answer keyquestions and report back to the collective in 15 minutes. My group is pretty gender- and nation-balanced: a 50 percentgender split with activists from Brazil, England, Ireland,Australia, America, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, and France; all in stark contrast to the IETA conference, which had about80 percent men and 80 percent Americans. A Dane in mygroup asks, “How do we get across that they [fill in your badguy] are using the police as a political tool?” Another membercomplains about perception and stresses that it is generatedby corporate media, so what else can be expected?

One of the activists in my breakout group says, “Violencecreates barriers in people’s minds.” There needs to be adirect and visceral link to your actions. Chaining yourself to a power plant is more effective than just smashing windowsof a bank. Some marketing knowledge starts seeping in after all.

I ask what the group’s reaction might be relative to tomorrow’s outcome? My question is promptly dismissed anddeemed irrelevant to the group. I then find out that theEnglish barrister does not know the name of the UN head.This is when I first started thinking about the many carnivalsof Copenhagen; one unaware of the other. Here I am in thecenter of the universe, the Disneyworld of activism, andmeanwhile, other corporate and political carnivals are puttingon their respective shows and going about their business,with no idea of what is happening here, and vice versa. Ifonly the crisp flakes of Danish snow could have brought somecollective awareness.

The Danes may not have known it, but COP15 divided thetown into the very same demarcations seen on geopoliticaland socio-cultural levels around the world. In the midst of aDanish snow bowl, carnivals set up across the town: corporationsbrought you in with demonstrations of profit-reaping carbondeals, diplomats spun yarns of new world orders and kudostrading, and activists were activating civic spirits and handingout empowerments pills. And in the meantime, no carnivallooked to the other, and the snow and hope of a climate dealboth melted away.

personally SPEAKING

The Many Carnivals of Copenhagen

> ch

eck

out t

he b

log

from

cope

nhag

en w

ww.ni

chol

as.du

ke.ed

u/cop1

5

activist table

Hopenhagen

KlimaForum

My Stake Out

Rally Sign

SC

HO

OL

NE

WSthe log

Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutionsbreaking down barriers to environmental progress

By any measure, the 2,700-mile Mekong Riverranks among Earth’s great waterways.

Flowing from the Himalayan highlands to the South China Sea, it provides food, water,transportation and inspiration for nearly 60 millionpeople in China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos,Cambodia and Vietnam who live in its 307,000-square-mile basin. More than 1,200 species offish, many found nowhere else and some alreadyendangered, have been identified in its waters.Only the Amazon boasts greater biodiversity.

But it’s another set of numbers that makesthe Mekong a focal point these days for scientists,conservationists and water policy experts.

“Hydropower development is moving very fastin China now. Four dams have been built on theChina portion of the Mekong in recent years, andfour more are in planning,” says Peter McCornick,director of water policy at the Nicholas Institutefor Environmental Policy Solutions.

One of the major concerns is how thesedams in the Mekong’s upper basin will be operated, McCornick says, and what their effectwill be on the timing of water flows in the lowerbasin. Changes in water-flow timing could exacerbate flooding and, according to ecologists,disrupt the migration patterns of important fishspecies that are triggered by the onset of theflood season. The Mekong is home to the world’slargest freshwater fishery, and is vitally importantto the food security of millions of people.

Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia alsohave built, or are planning to build, dams alongthe river or its tributaries. Especially contentiousare the dams planned for the main stream of the Mekong in Laos and Cambodia, which, being much lower in the basin than those inChina, present significant barriers for the migrating species of fish.

The dams are only one piece of the Mekong’sincreasingly complicated water policy puzzle,McCornick notes. New resorts, roads and other

infrastructure are being built to accommodate aburgeoning ecotourism industry. Runoff frommining and forestry poses hazards. Demand forirrigation is growing as more natural landscapesare converted into agricultural lands for rubber,rice and biofuel production. Climate change willlikely bring sea-level rise and increased rainfallduring the wet season, increasing the risk offlooding in the Mekong Delta, Southeast Asia’ssecond-largest rice producing region.

McCornick, who has devoted much of histhree-decade career to water issues in SoutheastAsia, South Asia and Africa, is engaged in effortsto find answers.

Working with partner organizations in theregion, including the World Wildlife Fund, theInternational Water Management Institute andlocal government agencies, he’s helping to assessthe risks and devise policies and approaches that promote sustainable economic developmentwhile protecting natural resources.

Adopting a pragmatic approach is key. “Solutions have to be local,” McCornick

stresses, “and they must consider the manycomplexities. We need to find a middle ground—to bring experts, local stakeholders and decisionmakers together so they can find solutions that balance environmental tradeoffs witheconomic benefits.

“It’s not just the Mekong where we see these issues,” McCornick adds. “The Ganges,the Blue Nile, the Jordan, the Indus River inPakistan—they all face major challenges fromincreased demands for energy and food production,food security and climate change.”

Elizabeth Kistin, research associate at theNicholas Institute, and Heather Hosterman, a juniorfellow there, assist McCornick in his water policywork. Nicholas School Master of EnvironmentalManagement students Lauren Campbell and Anna Shpitsberg, also work with him.

SC

HO

OL

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WSthe log

statisticallySPEAKING

Thanks to advanced engineering and government-backed programssuch as Energy Star, our appliances and homes have become moreefficient. And yet, when all is said and done, we're still a lot lessefficient than our parents and grandparents were in the 1950s.

In the 1950s the average American used roughly 2,200 kilo-watt-hours of electricity per year; today that number has grown toroughly 13,800 kilowatt-hours per year.

WHAT’S GOING ON? TAKE A LOOK AT A FEW COMPARATIVE STATISTICS:

1950 2000s

Avg. persons per household 3.37 2.56Avg. size of single-family home 983 sq. ft 2,349 sq. ft.No. of housing units with 40 > 124

refrigerators (in millions)

Avg. refrigerator volume 9 cu. ft. 20 cu. ft.Avg. refrigerator energy use 360 kWh 420 kWh

It appears our drive to supersize is making us less efficient. So if you’re looking for one way to lower your environmental impact,try downsizing.

dukenvironment 14

Duke Trustees Approve Creation of PhD Programin Environmental Policy

The Duke University Board of Trustees’Executive Committee gave final approvalto the creation of a PhD program inenvironmental policy, which builds onthe university’s existing strengths inenvironmental science research andeducation, and public policy studies.The first PhDs in the program areexpected to start this fall.

The program, which had beenendorsed by faculty review committees,“will educate the people who will beshaping the next generation of environ-mental policy,” said Randall Kramer,professor of resource and environmentaleconomics at the Nicholas School.

The degree is expected to attracttop students, Kramer said, noting that 17 Nicholas students interested in environmental policy are currentlypursuing a PhD.

“The establishment of this degreeprogram will enable Duke to recruit the best national and international students interested in environmentalsocial science policy,” said ProvostPeter Lange, the university’s top academic officer. “At a time when climate change and related environ-mental issues are of utmost concern to world leaders, we feel like there isno better time to launch such animportant program.”

Kramer said the new degree takesadvantage of existing strengths in theNicholas School and the SanfordSchool of Public Policy; both schoolsrecently made senior hires in environ-mental policy. Also participating in the PhD program will be the politicalscience and economics departments,Duke Law School and the FuquaSchool of Business.

The new program is the only PhDprogram in the country jointly adminis-tered by a school of the environmentand a public policy school. JeffreyVincent, Clarence F. Korstian Professorof Forest Economics and Management,has agreed to be the first Director ofGraduate Studies for the program.Vincent holds appointments at boththe Nicholas and Sanford schools.

Timothy H. Profeta hasbeen appointed to a second five-year term as director of DukeUniversity’s NicholasInstitute for EnvironmentalPolicy Solutions.

The NicholasInstitute is a nonpartisanforum for research andpolicy analysis on criticalenvironmental issuesincluding energy, climate,water, oceans policy, and ecosystems manage-ment. It draws on thebroad expertise of morethan 40 core and affiliatedstaff members, facultymembers campuswide,and partners from industry,government, environmentalorganizations and otheracademic institutions.

Profeta was appointedfounding director of the Institute and seniorassociate dean at theNicholas School in 2005.

Statistics courtesy of Dean Bill Chameides’ blog, The Green Grok, thegreengrok.com

Treading in International WatersPeter McCornick Helps Local Leaders Work TowardSustainable Policy Solutions for the Mekong River

ProfetaReappointedDirector ofNicholas Institute

Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutionsbreaking down barriers to environmental progress

By any measure, the 2,700-mile Mekong Riverranks among Earth’s great waterways.

Flowing from the Himalayan highlands to the South China Sea, it provides food, water,transportation and inspiration for nearly 60 millionpeople in China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos,Cambodia and Vietnam who live in its 307,000-square-mile basin. More than 1,200 species offish, many found nowhere else and some alreadyendangered, have been identified in its waters.Only the Amazon boasts greater biodiversity.

But it’s another set of numbers that makesthe Mekong a focal point these days for scientists,conservationists and water policy experts.

“Hydropower development is moving very fastin China now. Four dams have been built on theChina portion of the Mekong in recent years, andfour more are in planning,” says Peter McCornick,director of water policy at the Nicholas Institutefor Environmental Policy Solutions.

One of the major concerns is how thesedams in the Mekong’s upper basin will be operated, McCornick says, and what their effectwill be on the timing of water flows in the lowerbasin. Changes in water-flow timing could exacerbate flooding and, according to ecologists,disrupt the migration patterns of important fishspecies that are triggered by the onset of theflood season. The Mekong is home to the world’slargest freshwater fishery, and is vitally importantto the food security of millions of people.

Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia alsohave built, or are planning to build, dams alongthe river or its tributaries. Especially contentiousare the dams planned for the main stream of the Mekong in Laos and Cambodia, which, being much lower in the basin than those inChina, present significant barriers for the migrating species of fish.

The dams are only one piece of the Mekong’sincreasingly complicated water policy puzzle,McCornick notes. New resorts, roads and other

infrastructure are being built to accommodate aburgeoning ecotourism industry. Runoff frommining and forestry poses hazards. Demand forirrigation is growing as more natural landscapesare converted into agricultural lands for rubber,rice and biofuel production. Climate change willlikely bring sea-level rise and increased rainfallduring the wet season, increasing the risk offlooding in the Mekong Delta, Southeast Asia’ssecond-largest rice producing region.

McCornick, who has devoted much of histhree-decade career to water issues in SoutheastAsia, South Asia and Africa, is engaged in effortsto find answers.

Working with partner organizations in theregion, including the World Wildlife Fund, theInternational Water Management Institute andlocal government agencies, he’s helping to assessthe risks and devise policies and approaches that promote sustainable economic developmentwhile protecting natural resources.

Adopting a pragmatic approach is key. “Solutions have to be local,” McCornick

stresses, “and they must consider the manycomplexities. We need to find a middle ground—to bring experts, local stakeholders and decisionmakers together so they can find solutions that balance environmental tradeoffs witheconomic benefits.

“It’s not just the Mekong where we see these issues,” McCornick adds. “The Ganges,the Blue Nile, the Jordan, the Indus River inPakistan—they all face major challenges fromincreased demands for energy and food production,food security and climate change.”

Elizabeth Kistin, research associate at theNicholas Institute, and Heather Hosterman, a juniorfellow there, assist McCornick in his water policywork. Nicholas School Master of EnvironmentalManagement students Lauren Campbell and Anna Shpitsberg, also work with him.

SC

HO

OL

NE

WSthe log

statisticallySPEAKING

Thanks to advanced engineering and government-backed programssuch as Energy Star, our appliances and homes have become moreefficient. And yet, when all is said and done, we're still a lot lessefficient than our parents and grandparents were in the 1950s.

In the 1950s the average American used roughly 2,200 kilo-watt-hours of electricity per year; today that number has grown toroughly 13,800 kilowatt-hours per year.

WHAT’S GOING ON? TAKE A LOOK AT A FEW COMPARATIVE STATISTICS:

1950 2000s

Avg. persons per household 3.37 2.56Avg. size of single-family home 983 sq. ft 2,349 sq. ft.No. of housing units with 40 > 124

refrigerators (in millions)

Avg. refrigerator volume 9 cu. ft. 20 cu. ft.Avg. refrigerator energy use 360 kWh 420 kWh

It appears our drive to supersize is making us less efficient. So if you’re looking for one way to lower your environmental impact,try downsizing.

dukenvironment 14

Duke Trustees Approve Creation of PhD Programin Environmental Policy

The Duke University Board of Trustees’Executive Committee gave final approvalto the creation of a PhD program inenvironmental policy, which builds onthe university’s existing strengths inenvironmental science research andeducation, and public policy studies.The first PhDs in the program areexpected to start this fall.

The program, which had beenendorsed by faculty review committees,“will educate the people who will beshaping the next generation of environ-mental policy,” said Randall Kramer,professor of resource and environmentaleconomics at the Nicholas School.

The degree is expected to attracttop students, Kramer said, noting that 17 Nicholas students interested in environmental policy are currentlypursuing a PhD.

“The establishment of this degreeprogram will enable Duke to recruit the best national and international students interested in environmentalsocial science policy,” said ProvostPeter Lange, the university’s top academic officer. “At a time when climate change and related environ-mental issues are of utmost concern to world leaders, we feel like there isno better time to launch such animportant program.”

Kramer said the new degree takesadvantage of existing strengths in theNicholas School and the SanfordSchool of Public Policy; both schoolsrecently made senior hires in environ-mental policy. Also participating in the PhD program will be the politicalscience and economics departments,Duke Law School and the FuquaSchool of Business.

The new program is the only PhDprogram in the country jointly adminis-tered by a school of the environmentand a public policy school. JeffreyVincent, Clarence F. Korstian Professorof Forest Economics and Management,has agreed to be the first Director ofGraduate Studies for the program.Vincent holds appointments at boththe Nicholas and Sanford schools.

Timothy H. Profeta hasbeen appointed to a second five-year term as director of DukeUniversity’s NicholasInstitute for EnvironmentalPolicy Solutions.

The NicholasInstitute is a nonpartisanforum for research andpolicy analysis on criticalenvironmental issuesincluding energy, climate,water, oceans policy, and ecosystems manage-ment. It draws on thebroad expertise of morethan 40 core and affiliatedstaff members, facultymembers campuswide,and partners from industry,government, environmentalorganizations and otheracademic institutions.

Profeta was appointedfounding director of the Institute and seniorassociate dean at theNicholas School in 2005.

Statistics courtesy of Dean Bill Chameides’ blog, The Green Grok, thegreengrok.com

Treading in International WatersPeter McCornick Helps Local Leaders Work TowardSustainable Policy Solutions for the Mekong River

ProfetaReappointedDirector ofNicholas Institute

dukenvironment 16

From the songs of humpback whalesto the rapid-fire clicks and whistles of bottlenose dolphins, scientists have long studied the sounds andvocalizations of marine mammals tobetter understand what role they playin helping the animals communicateand explore their environment.

In recent years, however, more and more of the noises picked up byscientists’ hydrophones come fromhuman activities—the rumbling of ships,the thunder of seismic air guns used inunderwater oil and gas exploration,the pings of sonar and echosounders.

This cacophony of increased back-ground noise is creating new challenges,both for the animals that rely on soundto navigate, communicate or forage,and for the scientists who study them.

“In the northern Gulf of Mexico,you cannot put a hydrophone in thewater without hearing the boom of aseismic gun. This is really a conservationnightmare,” says Doug Nowacek, amarine biologist at the Duke University

Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C. Nowacek is Repass-Rodgers

University Associate Professor ofConservation Technology and Electricaland Computer Engineering—a jointposition, created two years ago, in Duke’sNicholas School of the Environmentand Pratt School of Engineering. Heworks with scientists and engineers at both schools to develop new andbetter technologies to record and analyze marine mammal behaviorsand acoustics, and to investigate theeffects anthropogenic backgroundnoises have on them.

“Whether you’re a whale or ahuman, the dangers of chronic exposureto sound are essentially the same: youeither become used to it over time—you habituate to it and the other noisesit masks—or, if it is loud enough, it reduces your hearing ability,”Nowacek says.

“We recognize the danger to humansand regulate it, but whales and othermarine species don’t have the same

level of protection,” he says. “We reallydon’t know what the long-term effectsof chronic exposure to noise are onthem or how it affects key behaviorslike foraging and reproduction.”

Finding answers has becomeincreasingly urgent in recent years as fewer and fewer stretches of oceanremain free of human noise, Nowacekexplains. Sounds of shipping are common now in waters off the coastof Antarctica; pings of sonar reverberateoff the walls of remote, mid-oceancanyons; researchers in the middle of the Atlantic can hear the sounds of underwater oil exploration all theway from Brazil. Even the once placidwaters of the Arctic Ocean may soon no longer be off limits to anthro-pogenic noise pollution. As rising temperatures associated with climatechange thaw the Arctic icepack, thesounds of shipping and underwaterexploration could become common in ice-free years.

Adding to the urgency, a study by

What Effect Does Growing Cacophony of Underwater Sounds Have on Marine Mammals?Doug Nowacek Urgently Works to Create New Technologies That Will Tell Us by Tim Lucas

researchers in Hawaii and California,published in 2009 in the journalNature Geoscience, reports that risinglevels of carbon dioxide absorbed bythe oceans in recent decades haveraised seawater acidity and affected its acoustics. By century’s end, theoceans’ ability to absorb low-frequencysounds, including many naturalsounds and nearly all manmade noises, may decrease by up to 70 percent, the study suggests. Thosenoises will become louder and moreintense underwater.

Nowacek and his team are busydeveloping tools that allow scientiststo document how these acoustic stimuli affect marine mammal behavior,as well as shedding new light on the behaviors themselves. Anotherimportant thrust of his work is pursuingnew ship-quieting technologies andlow-amplitude sonar, to reduce man-made noises at their source.

“Comparatively speaking, marineconservation technology is a newfield,” he explains. “Field biologiststraditionally have built tools out ofwhatever they could. Sometimes theygot brilliant sets of data, but some-times not.”

Building technologies designedspecifically for these purposes—tags,floats, gliders, signal processing systems and other sensitive devicesthat can perform multiple functionsover long periods on tight budgets inharsh marine environments—presentsnew challenges, he says. “But as longas we approach it intelligently, my attitude is: Why not? Let’s try. Let’snot look at the limits, let’s look at the data we want to get, and make it happen.”

That willingness to push limits,even ignore them if necessary, hascharacterized the 41-year-old Nowacek’scareer since his days as a pre-medzoology major at Ohio WesleyanUniversity in the late 1980s.

His parents were physicians, andNowacek, who was good at scienceand fond of tinkering with things,

figured he’d follow in their footsteps.But at the end of his junior year, oneof his mentors at Ohio Wesleyanhanded him a flier for a research program called the Carolinas andOhio Science Education Network.

Funded by the Pew Foundation,the program’s primary purpose was to give minority and female sciencemajors from small colleges in Ohio a chance to do independent summerfield research at Duke or DavidsonCollege. Nowacek’s odds of receivingfunding were slim since he didn’t fitthe program’s targeted profile and theapplication period was nearing its end,but he applied nonetheless and endedup receiving a grant to spend the summer at the Duke Marine Lab.

There, he worked with DavidGrant, a biologist from Davidson who routinely brought students tostudy in Beaufort, to document howwild horse traffic on Carrot Islandaffected the invertebrate marine community in tidal creeks.

In between research shifts, Nowacekvolunteered as a dolphin spotter, taking photos of their fins, for a localconservation organization called theDuke/NOAA Dolphin Watch, which hadbeen founded in 1986 by researchersat the Duke Marine Lab and NationalAtmospheric and Oceanic Administration.

“I sort of got bitten by the bug onthat trip,” he says. “I was fascinatedby all the marine animals, especiallythe dolphins, that can do things fewother animals can.”

The following summer, he wrote his own grant proposal to return anddo independent research with MarineLab faculty member Richard Forwardon dolphin vocalizations. His work,combined with another student’s data,revealed that dolphins use a differentset of vocalization patterns in summerand fall. Their finding was publishedlater that year, but by then, Nowacek—now torn between possible careers inmedicine or marine science—hadreturned to Ohio. Back in his home-town of Cleveland, he studied antibody

binding and conducted molecularcloning and DNA sequencing as aresearch assistant in an immunohisto-chemistry lab at Case Western ReserveUniversity’s medical school.

He returned to Beaufort again inthe summer of 1992 to take a marinemammals course at the Marine Lab,co-taught by Peter Tyack, a visitingscholar from Woods Hole OceanographicInstitution, and Randy Wells of theChicago Zoological Society, who leadsa highly respected dolphin researchprogram in Sarasota, Fla.

The third time in Beaufort provedthe charm.

“Peter and Randy challenged us to follow and frame our own researchinterests,” Nowacek says. “That resonated with me. I’d always likedputting things together and makingthem work, and the idea of developingmy own technology to do marineresearch was intriguing.”

When the course ended, hereturned to his job in the immunohis-tochemistry lab in Cleveland andapplied to, and was accepted by, anumber of top med and grad schoolprograms. But the acceptance letter he was holding out for was an Officeof Naval Research (ONR) fellowshipto study under Tyack through theWoods Hole-Massachusetts Instituteof Technology joint PhD program inbiological oceanography.

“As the deadline for being acceptedapproached, I still hadn’t heard, so I left for vacation to chill,” he recalls.When he returned a few weeks later,much to his relief, an acceptance letterfrom the program was waiting for him.

Unfortunately, the deadline foraccepting it already had passed.

“Three years of free tuition toMIT—gone,” he says with a groan.

Desperate, he called MIT, ONRand Woods Hole asking that the dead-line be disregarded since he had beenaway on vacation and Federal Expressfailed to get a required signature whendelivering the letter to his apartment.It was a Hail Mary—a last-minute

RE

SE

AR

CHprofilenoiseNightmare

Top photo of Antarctica reserach cruise by Ari Friedlaender, photos of Doug Nowacek by Scott Taylor.

dukenvironment 16

From the songs of humpback whalesto the rapid-fire clicks and whistles of bottlenose dolphins, scientists have long studied the sounds andvocalizations of marine mammals tobetter understand what role they playin helping the animals communicateand explore their environment.

In recent years, however, more and more of the noises picked up byscientists’ hydrophones come fromhuman activities—the rumbling of ships,the thunder of seismic air guns used inunderwater oil and gas exploration,the pings of sonar and echosounders.

This cacophony of increased back-ground noise is creating new challenges,both for the animals that rely on soundto navigate, communicate or forage,and for the scientists who study them.

“In the northern Gulf of Mexico,you cannot put a hydrophone in thewater without hearing the boom of aseismic gun. This is really a conservationnightmare,” says Doug Nowacek, amarine biologist at the Duke University

Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C. Nowacek is Repass-Rodgers

University Associate Professor ofConservation Technology and Electricaland Computer Engineering—a jointposition, created two years ago, in Duke’sNicholas School of the Environmentand Pratt School of Engineering. Heworks with scientists and engineers at both schools to develop new andbetter technologies to record and analyze marine mammal behaviorsand acoustics, and to investigate theeffects anthropogenic backgroundnoises have on them.

“Whether you’re a whale or ahuman, the dangers of chronic exposureto sound are essentially the same: youeither become used to it over time—you habituate to it and the other noisesit masks—or, if it is loud enough, it reduces your hearing ability,”Nowacek says.

“We recognize the danger to humansand regulate it, but whales and othermarine species don’t have the same

level of protection,” he says. “We reallydon’t know what the long-term effectsof chronic exposure to noise are onthem or how it affects key behaviorslike foraging and reproduction.”

Finding answers has becomeincreasingly urgent in recent years as fewer and fewer stretches of oceanremain free of human noise, Nowacekexplains. Sounds of shipping are common now in waters off the coastof Antarctica; pings of sonar reverberateoff the walls of remote, mid-oceancanyons; researchers in the middle of the Atlantic can hear the sounds of underwater oil exploration all theway from Brazil. Even the once placidwaters of the Arctic Ocean may soon no longer be off limits to anthro-pogenic noise pollution. As rising temperatures associated with climatechange thaw the Arctic icepack, thesounds of shipping and underwaterexploration could become common in ice-free years.

Adding to the urgency, a study by

What Effect Does Growing Cacophony of Underwater Sounds Have on Marine Mammals?Doug Nowacek Urgently Works to Create New Technologies That Will Tell Us by Tim Lucas

researchers in Hawaii and California,published in 2009 in the journalNature Geoscience, reports that risinglevels of carbon dioxide absorbed bythe oceans in recent decades haveraised seawater acidity and affected its acoustics. By century’s end, theoceans’ ability to absorb low-frequencysounds, including many naturalsounds and nearly all manmade noises, may decrease by up to 70 percent, the study suggests. Thosenoises will become louder and moreintense underwater.

Nowacek and his team are busydeveloping tools that allow scientiststo document how these acoustic stimuli affect marine mammal behavior,as well as shedding new light on the behaviors themselves. Anotherimportant thrust of his work is pursuingnew ship-quieting technologies andlow-amplitude sonar, to reduce man-made noises at their source.

“Comparatively speaking, marineconservation technology is a newfield,” he explains. “Field biologiststraditionally have built tools out ofwhatever they could. Sometimes theygot brilliant sets of data, but some-times not.”

Building technologies designedspecifically for these purposes—tags,floats, gliders, signal processing systems and other sensitive devicesthat can perform multiple functionsover long periods on tight budgets inharsh marine environments—presentsnew challenges, he says. “But as longas we approach it intelligently, my attitude is: Why not? Let’s try. Let’snot look at the limits, let’s look at the data we want to get, and make it happen.”

That willingness to push limits,even ignore them if necessary, hascharacterized the 41-year-old Nowacek’scareer since his days as a pre-medzoology major at Ohio WesleyanUniversity in the late 1980s.

His parents were physicians, andNowacek, who was good at scienceand fond of tinkering with things,

figured he’d follow in their footsteps.But at the end of his junior year, oneof his mentors at Ohio Wesleyanhanded him a flier for a research program called the Carolinas andOhio Science Education Network.

Funded by the Pew Foundation,the program’s primary purpose was to give minority and female sciencemajors from small colleges in Ohio a chance to do independent summerfield research at Duke or DavidsonCollege. Nowacek’s odds of receivingfunding were slim since he didn’t fitthe program’s targeted profile and theapplication period was nearing its end,but he applied nonetheless and endedup receiving a grant to spend the summer at the Duke Marine Lab.

There, he worked with DavidGrant, a biologist from Davidson who routinely brought students tostudy in Beaufort, to document howwild horse traffic on Carrot Islandaffected the invertebrate marine community in tidal creeks.

In between research shifts, Nowacekvolunteered as a dolphin spotter, taking photos of their fins, for a localconservation organization called theDuke/NOAA Dolphin Watch, which hadbeen founded in 1986 by researchersat the Duke Marine Lab and NationalAtmospheric and Oceanic Administration.

“I sort of got bitten by the bug onthat trip,” he says. “I was fascinatedby all the marine animals, especiallythe dolphins, that can do things fewother animals can.”

The following summer, he wrote his own grant proposal to return anddo independent research with MarineLab faculty member Richard Forwardon dolphin vocalizations. His work,combined with another student’s data,revealed that dolphins use a differentset of vocalization patterns in summerand fall. Their finding was publishedlater that year, but by then, Nowacek—now torn between possible careers inmedicine or marine science—hadreturned to Ohio. Back in his home-town of Cleveland, he studied antibody

binding and conducted molecularcloning and DNA sequencing as aresearch assistant in an immunohisto-chemistry lab at Case Western ReserveUniversity’s medical school.

He returned to Beaufort again inthe summer of 1992 to take a marinemammals course at the Marine Lab,co-taught by Peter Tyack, a visitingscholar from Woods Hole OceanographicInstitution, and Randy Wells of theChicago Zoological Society, who leadsa highly respected dolphin researchprogram in Sarasota, Fla.

The third time in Beaufort provedthe charm.

“Peter and Randy challenged us to follow and frame our own researchinterests,” Nowacek says. “That resonated with me. I’d always likedputting things together and makingthem work, and the idea of developingmy own technology to do marineresearch was intriguing.”

When the course ended, hereturned to his job in the immunohis-tochemistry lab in Cleveland andapplied to, and was accepted by, anumber of top med and grad schoolprograms. But the acceptance letter he was holding out for was an Officeof Naval Research (ONR) fellowshipto study under Tyack through theWoods Hole-Massachusetts Instituteof Technology joint PhD program inbiological oceanography.

“As the deadline for being acceptedapproached, I still hadn’t heard, so I left for vacation to chill,” he recalls.When he returned a few weeks later,much to his relief, an acceptance letterfrom the program was waiting for him.

Unfortunately, the deadline foraccepting it already had passed.

“Three years of free tuition toMIT—gone,” he says with a groan.

Desperate, he called MIT, ONRand Woods Hole asking that the dead-line be disregarded since he had beenaway on vacation and Federal Expressfailed to get a required signature whendelivering the letter to his apartment.It was a Hail Mary—a last-minute

RE

SE

AR

CHprofilenoiseNightmare

Top photo of Antarctica reserach cruise by Ari Friedlaender, photos of Doug Nowacek by Scott Taylor.

18dukenvironment

America’s rise to economic ascendency was fueled by a readysupply of coal, but there was a price to pay. In 1917, Pulitzer-Prize winning author and all-around muckraker Upton Sinclairshed light on one aspect of that price—the human toll on miners. His novel, based on the events surrounding the ColoradoCoal Strike, exposed the appalling plight of miners in the early20th century. Sinclair entitled his novel King Coal, transforminga term of respect into a pejorative. Now we are asked to thinkof coal as “clean” instead of king. I’m not so sure.

Conditions have vastly improved for the American minerand surface mining, including mountaintop removal, has largelycut the miner out of the mining equation. But mountaintopremoval has exacted its own precious price on the environment(See Mountains of Controversy, Page 2). Ultimately, mountaintopmining has served to further taint the image of King Coal.

But coal mining is not the only reason for coal’s sorryimage. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel. Burning it produces amyriad of noxious air pollutants as well the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. That’s been a huge problem. Enter clean coaltechnology which, in the words of the American Coalition forClean Coal Electricity, will make it possible to burn coal with“near zero” emissions, by scrubbing those pollutants from thegaseous effluent before they get into the atmosphere. Problemgone, right? Not quite. Guess where those pollutants end up.

After you’ve extracted all the energy you can from coal,you’re left with a residue of coal ash waste that contains myriadtoxic substances including lead, arsenic and radioactive compounds. Most of us did not give a lot of thought to coal ash before Dec. 22, 2008. On that date more than one billiongallons of coal ash slurry burst through a dike at a TennesseeValley Authority coal plant in Kingston, Tenn., pouring toxicsludge into the Emory River and surrounding areas. As the dustliterally settled on the Kingston site, we began to learn somedisturbing facts about coal ash. (See Dukenvironment, Spring2009 at nicholas.duke.edu/dukenvironment/sp09/.)

Coal ash is right behind trash as the second largest wastestream in the United States. Since 2002 coal-fired powerplants in the United States have produced an average of morethan 120 million tons of coal waste each year. In 2007 theUnited States produced more than 130 million tons—enoughto fill a line of railroad cars extending from New York to Los Angeles and back and then halfway again to L.A. Some ofthe coal ash is recycled in building materials, but most, about60 percent, is dumped into landfills and containment ponds.These ponds and landfills are spread out over 900 sites; thereis just about one in every state of the union; many have leaked;and 44 have been classified as “high hazard” by the U.S. EPA.

The nation’s coal ash waste stream is growing by leaps andbounds; from about 65 to 130 million tons per year in the lasttwo decades. About 50 percent of that growth is the legacy ofclean coal, produced from flue-gas desulfurization. The technologyused to prevent sulfur oxides air pollution is not preventing pollution; it is just trading one form of pollution for another.

Coal ash is not regulated as a hazardous waste in theUnited States. Instead, it’s managed by a hodgepodge of stateregulations that often fail to adequately protect ecosystems or public health and clearly do not always safeguard againstdangerous spills and accidents. Shortly after being sworn inand with the memory of the Dec. 22 Kingston spill fresh ineveryone’s minds, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson promised to determine whether coal ash was a hazardous pollutant bythe end of 2009. Alas, the end of 2009 has come and gonewithout a determination.

Regardless of Administrator Jackson’s determination, itseems that coal has a way to go to deserve the clean label.

King Coal or Clean Coal is Still Just Coal by William L. Chameides

With the Dean

DE

AN

’SP

AG

Eforum

William L. Chameides is dean of the Nicholas School and professor of the environment.

He regularly blogs at TheGreenGrok.com.

long bomb—but it worked. ONR found money for an extra

fellowship and Nowacek packed hisbags for Woods Hole. Tyack becamehis PhD advisor and Wells became one of his PhD committee members.

Nowacek’s wide-ranging curiosityand unconventional approach blossomed under their mentorship. To collect data for his doctoral thesison the use of biosonar in foraging bottlenose dolphins, he filled a tethered aerostat balloon with helium,suspended a video camera from it and dropped it into Sarasota Bay.

“It crashed a few times, poppedonce or twice, but perseverance paidoff and I got really good footage of the dolphins feeding,” he says.Continued encouragement and supportfrom Tyack, Wells and other PhDcommittee members—including theNicholas School’s Andy Read andDuke alumnus Dan Rubenstein, chairof ecology and evolutionary biology atPrinceton University—kept Nowacek“in the hunt for unique data.”

After receiving his PhD in 1999, hehoned his scientific and technologicalskills in a series of research positions atWoods Hole, the Northeast FisheriesScience Center and the Mote MarineLaboratory in Sarasota, before joiningthe faculty at Florida State Universityas an assistant professor of oceanographyin 2003. He authored or co-authoredmore than 20 peer-reviewed publications;took part in high-profile researchcruises in the Gulf of Mexico, the Bayof Fundy, and off California’s ChannelIslands; and “just for fun” co-wrote a popular science book, DiscoveringDolphins, with his wife, Stephanie,also a marine scientist.

His ingenuity has made him asought-after collaborator.

“I’ve known Doug for 18 years.He continues to blend his energy, dedication, and technological savvyinto a winning combination foraddressing pressing marine mammalconservation issues, from endangeredright whale and manatee responses to

vessel approaches, to Antarctic hump-back and Western Pacific gray whalebehavior and ecology in the face ofnatural or anthropogenic changes tothe environment,” Wells says. “Dougis making a tremendous contributionto marine mammal conservation.”

In 2008, Nowacek returned toBeaufort once again, this time asDuke’s inaugural Repass-RodgersUniversity Associate Professor ofConservation Technology and Electricaland Computer Engineering.

The Repass-Rodgers professorshipwas endowed in 2004 through a $2.3 million gift to the university from Randy Repass, founder of WestMarine, the world’s largest boatingsupply retailer, and his wife, Sally-Christine Rodgers. The couple’s giftalso funded the 5,600-square-footMarguerite Kent Repass OceanConservation Center at the DukeMarine Lab.

“Being the Repass-Rodgers chairallows me to work with both theexpertise of scientists at the NicholasSchool and engineers at the PrattSchool to push the technology aheadmuch faster,” Nowacek says. “We’vebegun working on different signaltypes that military ships could use toreduce the amplitude of their sonarbut still provide the information they need.” A programmable, roboticunderwater glider, capable of collectingphysical and biological data andmarine mammal sounds over wideswaths of ocean, also is being developed.

While at Woods Hole, Nowacekhelped design a new type of tag that researchers use to track marineanimals, large and small, and documenttheir response to sounds.

The tags, which were used on aDuke-led research cruise to Antarcticalast year and featured in the November2009 issue of Physics Today, representa quantum leap forward over old technology. They measure water temperature, depth and acoustics, andare equipped with accelerometers thatrecord the pitch and roll of the tagged

animal underwater, and magnetometersthat provide directional headings inthree dimensions.

“We used to need lots of differentstuff to do this,” Nowacek explains.“But now, after an acoustic stimulus is heard, we can track the animal tosee how it reacts, where it goes, how it moves and what sounds it makes, in the short-term or for up to a day.”That’s vital information for putting the reaction into context, as well asfor increasing scientists’ basic under-standing of marine mammal behaviorslike foraging or echolocation.

In addition to pushing forwardpromising new technologies, Nowacekviews his appointment as the Repass-Rodgers chair as an opportunity torecruit and train the next generationof conversation technology innovators.

Working with administrators at thePratt and Nicholas schools, he’s createda program to bring small groups ofengineering juniors to the Marine Labfor a semester of study starting inspring 2011. The students will takecourses required for their major, butalso can take electives in marineacoustics or other marine sciences, and work alongside researchers in the conservation technology lab.

“Mentors played a huge role inhelping me follow and frame my own research interests,” Nowaceksays. “This is a way to pass that on,and show other students what theycan achieve, too.”

Tim Lucas is the Nicholas School’snational media relations and marketingspecialist.

18dukenvironment

America’s rise to economic ascendency was fueled by a readysupply of coal, but there was a price to pay. In 1917, Pulitzer-Prize winning author and all-around muckraker Upton Sinclairshed light on one aspect of that price—the human toll on miners. His novel, based on the events surrounding the ColoradoCoal Strike, exposed the appalling plight of miners in the early20th century. Sinclair entitled his novel King Coal, transforminga term of respect into a pejorative. Now we are asked to thinkof coal as “clean” instead of king. I’m not so sure.

Conditions have vastly improved for the American minerand surface mining, including mountaintop removal, has largelycut the miner out of the mining equation. But mountaintopremoval has exacted its own precious price on the environment(See Mountains of Controversy, Page 2). Ultimately, mountaintopmining has served to further taint the image of King Coal.

But coal mining is not the only reason for coal’s sorryimage. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel. Burning it produces amyriad of noxious air pollutants as well the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. That’s been a huge problem. Enter clean coaltechnology which, in the words of the American Coalition forClean Coal Electricity, will make it possible to burn coal with“near zero” emissions, by scrubbing those pollutants from thegaseous effluent before they get into the atmosphere. Problemgone, right? Not quite. Guess where those pollutants end up.

After you’ve extracted all the energy you can from coal,you’re left with a residue of coal ash waste that contains myriadtoxic substances including lead, arsenic and radioactive compounds. Most of us did not give a lot of thought to coal ash before Dec. 22, 2008. On that date more than one billiongallons of coal ash slurry burst through a dike at a TennesseeValley Authority coal plant in Kingston, Tenn., pouring toxicsludge into the Emory River and surrounding areas. As the dustliterally settled on the Kingston site, we began to learn somedisturbing facts about coal ash. (See Dukenvironment, Spring2009 at nicholas.duke.edu/dukenvironment/sp09/.)

Coal ash is right behind trash as the second largest wastestream in the United States. Since 2002 coal-fired powerplants in the United States have produced an average of morethan 120 million tons of coal waste each year. In 2007 theUnited States produced more than 130 million tons—enoughto fill a line of railroad cars extending from New York to Los Angeles and back and then halfway again to L.A. Some ofthe coal ash is recycled in building materials, but most, about60 percent, is dumped into landfills and containment ponds.These ponds and landfills are spread out over 900 sites; thereis just about one in every state of the union; many have leaked;and 44 have been classified as “high hazard” by the U.S. EPA.

The nation’s coal ash waste stream is growing by leaps andbounds; from about 65 to 130 million tons per year in the lasttwo decades. About 50 percent of that growth is the legacy ofclean coal, produced from flue-gas desulfurization. The technologyused to prevent sulfur oxides air pollution is not preventing pollution; it is just trading one form of pollution for another.

Coal ash is not regulated as a hazardous waste in theUnited States. Instead, it’s managed by a hodgepodge of stateregulations that often fail to adequately protect ecosystems or public health and clearly do not always safeguard againstdangerous spills and accidents. Shortly after being sworn inand with the memory of the Dec. 22 Kingston spill fresh ineveryone’s minds, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson promised to determine whether coal ash was a hazardous pollutant bythe end of 2009. Alas, the end of 2009 has come and gonewithout a determination.

Regardless of Administrator Jackson’s determination, itseems that coal has a way to go to deserve the clean label.

King Coal or Clean Coal is Still Just Coal by William L. Chameides

With the Dean

DE

AN

’SP

AG

Eforum

William L. Chameides is dean of the Nicholas School and professor of the environment.

He regularly blogs at TheGreenGrok.com.

long bomb—but it worked. ONR found money for an extra

fellowship and Nowacek packed hisbags for Woods Hole. Tyack becamehis PhD advisor and Wells became one of his PhD committee members.

Nowacek’s wide-ranging curiosityand unconventional approach blossomed under their mentorship. To collect data for his doctoral thesison the use of biosonar in foraging bottlenose dolphins, he filled a tethered aerostat balloon with helium,suspended a video camera from it and dropped it into Sarasota Bay.

“It crashed a few times, poppedonce or twice, but perseverance paidoff and I got really good footage of the dolphins feeding,” he says.Continued encouragement and supportfrom Tyack, Wells and other PhDcommittee members—including theNicholas School’s Andy Read andDuke alumnus Dan Rubenstein, chairof ecology and evolutionary biology atPrinceton University—kept Nowacek“in the hunt for unique data.”

After receiving his PhD in 1999, hehoned his scientific and technologicalskills in a series of research positions atWoods Hole, the Northeast FisheriesScience Center and the Mote MarineLaboratory in Sarasota, before joiningthe faculty at Florida State Universityas an assistant professor of oceanographyin 2003. He authored or co-authoredmore than 20 peer-reviewed publications;took part in high-profile researchcruises in the Gulf of Mexico, the Bayof Fundy, and off California’s ChannelIslands; and “just for fun” co-wrote a popular science book, DiscoveringDolphins, with his wife, Stephanie,also a marine scientist.

His ingenuity has made him asought-after collaborator.

“I’ve known Doug for 18 years.He continues to blend his energy, dedication, and technological savvyinto a winning combination foraddressing pressing marine mammalconservation issues, from endangeredright whale and manatee responses to

vessel approaches, to Antarctic hump-back and Western Pacific gray whalebehavior and ecology in the face ofnatural or anthropogenic changes tothe environment,” Wells says. “Dougis making a tremendous contributionto marine mammal conservation.”

In 2008, Nowacek returned toBeaufort once again, this time asDuke’s inaugural Repass-RodgersUniversity Associate Professor ofConservation Technology and Electricaland Computer Engineering.

The Repass-Rodgers professorshipwas endowed in 2004 through a $2.3 million gift to the university from Randy Repass, founder of WestMarine, the world’s largest boatingsupply retailer, and his wife, Sally-Christine Rodgers. The couple’s giftalso funded the 5,600-square-footMarguerite Kent Repass OceanConservation Center at the DukeMarine Lab.

“Being the Repass-Rodgers chairallows me to work with both theexpertise of scientists at the NicholasSchool and engineers at the PrattSchool to push the technology aheadmuch faster,” Nowacek says. “We’vebegun working on different signaltypes that military ships could use toreduce the amplitude of their sonarbut still provide the information they need.” A programmable, roboticunderwater glider, capable of collectingphysical and biological data andmarine mammal sounds over wideswaths of ocean, also is being developed.

While at Woods Hole, Nowacekhelped design a new type of tag that researchers use to track marineanimals, large and small, and documenttheir response to sounds.

The tags, which were used on aDuke-led research cruise to Antarcticalast year and featured in the November2009 issue of Physics Today, representa quantum leap forward over old technology. They measure water temperature, depth and acoustics, andare equipped with accelerometers thatrecord the pitch and roll of the tagged

animal underwater, and magnetometersthat provide directional headings inthree dimensions.

“We used to need lots of differentstuff to do this,” Nowacek explains.“But now, after an acoustic stimulus is heard, we can track the animal tosee how it reacts, where it goes, how it moves and what sounds it makes, in the short-term or for up to a day.”That’s vital information for putting the reaction into context, as well asfor increasing scientists’ basic under-standing of marine mammal behaviorslike foraging or echolocation.

In addition to pushing forwardpromising new technologies, Nowacekviews his appointment as the Repass-Rodgers chair as an opportunity torecruit and train the next generationof conversation technology innovators.

Working with administrators at thePratt and Nicholas schools, he’s createda program to bring small groups ofengineering juniors to the Marine Labfor a semester of study starting inspring 2011. The students will takecourses required for their major, butalso can take electives in marineacoustics or other marine sciences, and work alongside researchers in the conservation technology lab.

“Mentors played a huge role inhelping me follow and frame my own research interests,” Nowaceksays. “This is a way to pass that on,and show other students what theycan achieve, too.”

Tim Lucas is the Nicholas School’snational media relations and marketingspecialist.

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Now that most experts agree human-caused excess carbon dioxide threatensEarth’s climate because it traps too muchsolar heat, scientists, engineers and policymakers are pondering strategies to remove enough of the pollutant fromthe atmosphere before it is too late.

One strategy would isolate much of the carbon dioxide that emergesfrom the stacks of factories and powerplants. One average-sized coal-fueledpower plant produces 10,000 tons ofCO2 per day and there are about 640of those in the United States alone.

But that option begs the questionof what to do with all the set-asideindustrial CO2. One focus of Duke’sClimate Change Policy Partnership(CCPP)—a joint venture of the NicholasSchool, Nicholas Institute forEnvironmental Solutions and Centeron Global Change—is evaluatingwhether much of it could be stashedaway indefinitely underground in

places called deep saline aquifers.(Check out CCPP Web site atnicholas.duke.edu/ccpp.)

“The answer seems to be yes, and alot,” says Robert Jackson, the NicholasProfessor of Global EnvironmentalChange. “Decades or centuries of storage are possible.”

Jackson, who directs the Center on Global Change and co-directs the corporate-funded CCPP, was a co-author of a scientific paper in theFeb. 6, 2009, issue of the journalEnvironmental Science and Technologythat outlined the physical and economicpotential for so-called “geological carbon storage” in such aquifers.

“Deep saline aquifers are largeenough and deep enough to provide a real chance for mitigation,” addsJordan Eccles, a Nicholas School graduate student who was first authoron the study. “They tend to be verystable. There is not much chance for

leakage if the injection is properly sited.They’re probably the largest scale, bestopportunity that we can think of. Butthey may not be the cheapest.”

Eccles calls deep saline aquifersrepositories of “fossil water. It hasessentially been down in the Earth so long that it has started to dissolvethe rock.” As a result, these waters are very briny. While seawater has 30 parts per thousand salt content“these can have 300 parts,” he says.

Percolating down from the surfaceto depths of several thousand feet, thewater ideally gets trapped below a plugof rock within deposits of porous sedi-mentary strata, preferably sandstone.There it remains for eons, potentiallywaiting to be drilled with shafts andinjected with liquefied carbon dioxide.

“What we’re out to try to see ishow to implement carbon capture and storage on a regional and nationalscale,” says Lincoln Pratson, professor

C02Storage anOption?

Is Long-term

of energy and environment in theNicholas School, who also coauthoredthe paper and is Eccles’ faculty advisor.“We want to access the best places tostore it and at what cost. What wouldthe transportation system look likethat moves CO2 from plants to storagesites? Which plants are likely to tie intothe system, and when in the future?”

The presumption is that a nationalpipeline system that companies couldtap into would eventually be built connecting with the best sites for storage.“We will be asking what might thatpipeline look like.” says Jackson.

As an early part of this ongoingeffort, the Environmental Science and Technology paper describes theapplication of a computer model Eccles developed over a semester toassess characteristics of a number ofU.S. saline aquifers.

The researchers used his model toestimate how much carbon dioxidecould be stored at each site, how quicklythe gas could be injected there and atwhat price. Accompanying annotatedmaps bear color codes denoting averageestimated storage costs at the selectedunderground locations.

Their studies suggest the highest“storage potential” in the study areas,which include major sandstone forma-tions, would be in the Frio formationunderlying parts of the Texas Gulfcoast, with the second-best within the Mount Simon formation in subter-ranean Illinois and Indiana. “Eightypercent of the storage potential is inthose two places, with 60 percent ofthe total in the Frio,” says Eccles.Follow-up analyses also show specialprospects for a formation known asthe Lower Potomac, which underliescoastal Maryland, Virginia and north-eastern North Carolina.

Eccles’ model was calibrated usingreal-world results at three actual testpilot projects where carbon dioxide isbeing injected into saline aquifers. Oneis in the Frio, with others in Japan andthe North Sea.

Their model, the researchers wrote,assumes that the CO2 would be injectedunderground in a “supercritical” state.That means “it’s compressed to the stage where it acts like a gas but has thedensity of a liquid,” Eccles says. “Ideallyit would be compressed at the plant site

where it is captured and then transportedin a supercritical condition.”

While the analysis focused ondepths spanning between 500 and3,000 meters, the researchers wrotethat “effective storage peaks at an optimal depth of 1,600 meters.”

That is the point where competingfactors of available storage space andpressurized gas density reach a sweetspot. “As you go deeper the spaces getsmaller because of the pressure fromthe overhead rock,” Eccles says. “Onthe other hand, the CO2 also compresseswith depth. That compression is veryimportant, and there is a point whereit undergoes a very big transition overa small pressure change.”

The study’s conclusions were positive, but somewhat equivocal.

“Attractive geosequestration opportunities are likely available,” the authors wrote, and “it is virtuallycertain that there are regions in manyreservoirs with extremely low injectioncosts per ton of CO2 sequestered.”

But, to work, local rock layersmust be permeable and thick enough,as well as being of the right depth tokeep carbon dioxide in a supercriticalstate. And “these characteristics canvary widely enough to make geose-questration unattractive in many areasof sedimentary basins,” their paperconcluded.

“We’re talking about decades tocenturies of possible storage in the Frioand Mount Simon just by themselves,”Pratson says. “But what is interestingis that in many of the other reservoirs,you can’t store that much. They looklike they would potentially fill up inabout 20 years.”

Another enthusiasm-spoiler is theestimated price tag. “Our model indicatesthat the cost of geosequestration is substantial, approximately $3.50 perton of stored CO2 at the optimal depth.But the total costs of capturing andtransporting CO2 from power plantscould be an additional $50 a ton ormore,” the researchers’ report said.

And that “approximately” varieswidely from location to location. “Thecheapest places we found under real-world conditions would be about $1 a ton, but others can go up to hundredsof dollars per ton,” Eccles says.

The economic assessment was done

by Richard Newell, the NicholasSchool’s Gendell Associate Professor of Energy and EnvironmentalEconomics, currently on leave to serve as administrator of the federalEnergy Information Administration.

Economics and storage potentialaside, how would injecting carbondioxide underground affect the environment? Mark Little, a postdoctoralresearcher who has been working withJackson, has been trying to find out.

“We were thinking of adding anotherlayer of criteria in choosing such sitesby asking what is above them?” saysLittle, who is working in Washingtonthrough an American Association for the Advancement of ScienceCongressional Science Fellowship.

For example, the Midwest’s MountSimon saline aquifer’s tops out at about500 meters below the surface. “But atmore shallow layers, around 200 metersdeep, is an aquifer used for drinkingwater?” he adds. “We wanted to knowwhat would happen if there was a leakof carbon dioxide from below.”

Carbon dioxide, while toxic in very high concentrations, serves as an essential nutrient in plant photosyn-thesis process. But in the presence ofwater, CO2 forms carbonic acid, saysLittle, whose PhD is in geochemistry.Any limestone in the surroundinggeosystem could buffer the water so itdoesn’t get very acidic. But conditionsmay still change enough to leach outelements from the rocks—some ofthose potentially toxic.

So Little has obtained samples ofdrinking water aquifer material fromabove Mount Simon and several othersaline repository candidate sites. Backat Duke, carbon dioxide has since been set up to bubble through them in Jackson’s laboratory.

“What we’ve found so far is that levels of some elements we areparticularly interested in, like lead and arsenic, actually drop in somesamples once we start putting in theCO2,” Little says. “In some others,we’ve seen they may be increasing.”

Monte Basgall retired at the end ofJanuary from his position as seniorwriter in Duke’s Office of News andCommunications.

Duke Team Investigating the Potential of Saline AquifersSays the Answer Seems to be ‘Yes, and a Lot’ by Monte Basgall

20dukenvironment

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Now that most experts agree human-caused excess carbon dioxide threatensEarth’s climate because it traps too muchsolar heat, scientists, engineers and policymakers are pondering strategies to remove enough of the pollutant fromthe atmosphere before it is too late.

One strategy would isolate much of the carbon dioxide that emergesfrom the stacks of factories and powerplants. One average-sized coal-fueledpower plant produces 10,000 tons ofCO2 per day and there are about 640of those in the United States alone.

But that option begs the questionof what to do with all the set-asideindustrial CO2. One focus of Duke’sClimate Change Policy Partnership(CCPP)—a joint venture of the NicholasSchool, Nicholas Institute forEnvironmental Solutions and Centeron Global Change—is evaluatingwhether much of it could be stashedaway indefinitely underground in

places called deep saline aquifers.(Check out CCPP Web site atnicholas.duke.edu/ccpp.)

“The answer seems to be yes, and alot,” says Robert Jackson, the NicholasProfessor of Global EnvironmentalChange. “Decades or centuries of storage are possible.”

Jackson, who directs the Center on Global Change and co-directs the corporate-funded CCPP, was a co-author of a scientific paper in theFeb. 6, 2009, issue of the journalEnvironmental Science and Technologythat outlined the physical and economicpotential for so-called “geological carbon storage” in such aquifers.

“Deep saline aquifers are largeenough and deep enough to provide a real chance for mitigation,” addsJordan Eccles, a Nicholas School graduate student who was first authoron the study. “They tend to be verystable. There is not much chance for

leakage if the injection is properly sited.They’re probably the largest scale, bestopportunity that we can think of. Butthey may not be the cheapest.”

Eccles calls deep saline aquifersrepositories of “fossil water. It hasessentially been down in the Earth so long that it has started to dissolvethe rock.” As a result, these waters are very briny. While seawater has 30 parts per thousand salt content“these can have 300 parts,” he says.

Percolating down from the surfaceto depths of several thousand feet, thewater ideally gets trapped below a plugof rock within deposits of porous sedi-mentary strata, preferably sandstone.There it remains for eons, potentiallywaiting to be drilled with shafts andinjected with liquefied carbon dioxide.

“What we’re out to try to see ishow to implement carbon capture and storage on a regional and nationalscale,” says Lincoln Pratson, professor

C02Storage anOption?

Is Long-term

of energy and environment in theNicholas School, who also coauthoredthe paper and is Eccles’ faculty advisor.“We want to access the best places tostore it and at what cost. What wouldthe transportation system look likethat moves CO2 from plants to storagesites? Which plants are likely to tie intothe system, and when in the future?”

The presumption is that a nationalpipeline system that companies couldtap into would eventually be built connecting with the best sites for storage.“We will be asking what might thatpipeline look like.” says Jackson.

As an early part of this ongoingeffort, the Environmental Science and Technology paper describes theapplication of a computer model Eccles developed over a semester toassess characteristics of a number ofU.S. saline aquifers.

The researchers used his model toestimate how much carbon dioxidecould be stored at each site, how quicklythe gas could be injected there and atwhat price. Accompanying annotatedmaps bear color codes denoting averageestimated storage costs at the selectedunderground locations.

Their studies suggest the highest“storage potential” in the study areas,which include major sandstone forma-tions, would be in the Frio formationunderlying parts of the Texas Gulfcoast, with the second-best within the Mount Simon formation in subter-ranean Illinois and Indiana. “Eightypercent of the storage potential is inthose two places, with 60 percent ofthe total in the Frio,” says Eccles.Follow-up analyses also show specialprospects for a formation known asthe Lower Potomac, which underliescoastal Maryland, Virginia and north-eastern North Carolina.

Eccles’ model was calibrated usingreal-world results at three actual testpilot projects where carbon dioxide isbeing injected into saline aquifers. Oneis in the Frio, with others in Japan andthe North Sea.

Their model, the researchers wrote,assumes that the CO2 would be injectedunderground in a “supercritical” state.That means “it’s compressed to the stage where it acts like a gas but has thedensity of a liquid,” Eccles says. “Ideallyit would be compressed at the plant site

where it is captured and then transportedin a supercritical condition.”

While the analysis focused ondepths spanning between 500 and3,000 meters, the researchers wrotethat “effective storage peaks at an optimal depth of 1,600 meters.”

That is the point where competingfactors of available storage space andpressurized gas density reach a sweetspot. “As you go deeper the spaces getsmaller because of the pressure fromthe overhead rock,” Eccles says. “Onthe other hand, the CO2 also compresseswith depth. That compression is veryimportant, and there is a point whereit undergoes a very big transition overa small pressure change.”

The study’s conclusions were positive, but somewhat equivocal.

“Attractive geosequestration opportunities are likely available,” the authors wrote, and “it is virtuallycertain that there are regions in manyreservoirs with extremely low injectioncosts per ton of CO2 sequestered.”

But, to work, local rock layersmust be permeable and thick enough,as well as being of the right depth tokeep carbon dioxide in a supercriticalstate. And “these characteristics canvary widely enough to make geose-questration unattractive in many areasof sedimentary basins,” their paperconcluded.

“We’re talking about decades tocenturies of possible storage in the Frioand Mount Simon just by themselves,”Pratson says. “But what is interestingis that in many of the other reservoirs,you can’t store that much. They looklike they would potentially fill up inabout 20 years.”

Another enthusiasm-spoiler is theestimated price tag. “Our model indicatesthat the cost of geosequestration is substantial, approximately $3.50 perton of stored CO2 at the optimal depth.But the total costs of capturing andtransporting CO2 from power plantscould be an additional $50 a ton ormore,” the researchers’ report said.

And that “approximately” varieswidely from location to location. “Thecheapest places we found under real-world conditions would be about $1 a ton, but others can go up to hundredsof dollars per ton,” Eccles says.

The economic assessment was done

by Richard Newell, the NicholasSchool’s Gendell Associate Professor of Energy and EnvironmentalEconomics, currently on leave to serve as administrator of the federalEnergy Information Administration.

Economics and storage potentialaside, how would injecting carbondioxide underground affect the environment? Mark Little, a postdoctoralresearcher who has been working withJackson, has been trying to find out.

“We were thinking of adding anotherlayer of criteria in choosing such sitesby asking what is above them?” saysLittle, who is working in Washingtonthrough an American Association for the Advancement of ScienceCongressional Science Fellowship.

For example, the Midwest’s MountSimon saline aquifer’s tops out at about500 meters below the surface. “But atmore shallow layers, around 200 metersdeep, is an aquifer used for drinkingwater?” he adds. “We wanted to knowwhat would happen if there was a leakof carbon dioxide from below.”

Carbon dioxide, while toxic in very high concentrations, serves as an essential nutrient in plant photosyn-thesis process. But in the presence ofwater, CO2 forms carbonic acid, saysLittle, whose PhD is in geochemistry.Any limestone in the surroundinggeosystem could buffer the water so itdoesn’t get very acidic. But conditionsmay still change enough to leach outelements from the rocks—some ofthose potentially toxic.

So Little has obtained samples ofdrinking water aquifer material fromabove Mount Simon and several othersaline repository candidate sites. Backat Duke, carbon dioxide has since been set up to bubble through them in Jackson’s laboratory.

“What we’ve found so far is that levels of some elements we areparticularly interested in, like lead and arsenic, actually drop in somesamples once we start putting in theCO2,” Little says. “In some others,we’ve seen they may be increasing.”

Monte Basgall retired at the end ofJanuary from his position as seniorwriter in Duke’s Office of News andCommunications.

Duke Team Investigating the Potential of Saline AquifersSays the Answer Seems to be ‘Yes, and a Lot’ by Monte Basgall

20dukenvironment

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By Laura Cloak

A vision for a marine research and teaching campus with a strong culture of stewardship and sustainability inspiredthree PhD students at the Duke UniversityMarine Lab in Beaufort, N.C., intoaction. In 2006, Zoe Meletis, ElliottHazen and Leigh Torres founded theGreen Wave, a student group with goalsto transform the Marine Lab into agreener place to study, work, and live.

Now, four years later, the GreenWave remains an active force on PiversIsland, with a list of environmentalimprovements to its credit and a committed group of students workingfull-steam ahead to achieve even more.

“There is a strong culture of environ-mental awareness that has grown fromthe Green Wave’s efforts,” says CindyLee Van Dover, director of the MarineLab. Van Dover has been involved with the group since its beginning. She and other faculty and staff have supported the group in its efforts to minimize the Marine Lab’s footprint and establish itself as a green leader—leading by example—in the community.

“I support the Green Wave as muchas possible and turn to them for adviceon environmental issues at the Lab,” Van Dover says. For example, the group was asked to help with a study of green practices in boat building as thestaff begins to think about a replacingthe Susan Hudson, one of the MarineLab’s research vessels.

Some of the group’s major accom-plishments so far include attaining North Carolina Clean Marina status for the Lab’s marina; founding a ‘Greenby Design’ course and a popular weeklyseminar series; conducting a lab-wideenergy audit; and establishing a kitchen

garden and a compost pile. The ‘Green by Design’ course is a

full-credit, semester-long course held inthe fall for Marine Lab undergraduates andMaster of Environmental Managementstudents. The focus of the course variesslightly each time it is held, depending on its instructors, explains PhD studentNoëlle Boucquey. “Essentially, the course is designed to foster creative, critical thinking about practical solutionstoward environmental and social sustainability in the world we live in,”she explains.

Boucquey has been involved with theGreen Wave for about six months. Herfavorite project is the Marine Lab’s garden.

“Over the summer of 2009 I managedthe newly installed garden, where weexperimented with what types of vegetablesand herbs would grow best at the Laband be most useful for the dining hall,”she says. “We found that tomatoes werequite difficult to grow, but that severaldifferent herbs—cilantro, thyme, sage,dill and basil—grew well and could be added to dining hall dishes for freshflavoring.”

Under Boucquey’s direction, a smallrain barrel has been installed to collectwater from the dining hall’s roof, forwatering the garden. “We’re hoping toget an even larger one this year,” she says.

This past fall marked the third consecutive year for the Green Wave’sseminar series—a weekly series that PhDstudent Rhema Bjorkland describes asbeing so popular that it was covered byNational Public Radio in its first year.The seminar places an emphasis on local and community-based, sustainableissues such as fisheries, wind energy, or community-based food systems.

The Green Wave was able to hire a sustainability intern for this spring.

Christen Brown, an undergrad fromWittenberg University studying at theMarine Lab for a semester, will be working to increase student involvementin Green Wave activities and to act as acreative director for the group’s projects.“We hope that by establishing thisinternship, the Green Wave’s studentinfrastructure will become more perma-nent, and that new ideas will continuallybe implemented,” Boucquey explains.

The group’s vision extends beyondthe island, into the surrounding villages,towns and countryside. Providing opportunities for increased interactionbetween local residents and Marine Labstudents, staff and faculty continues tobe a priority. All Green Wave seminarsare open to the public, and students inthe ‘Green by Design’ course take fieldtrips to different areas of CarteretCounty to observe environmental issuesand sustainable business practices.

“All of the Green Wave’s projects are dependent upon dedicated studentaction,” Boucquey says proudly. “Fromits beginning, the success of the group’sprojects has grown directly from the initiative of student leaders.”

Van Dover agrees. She rememberswhen the group’s three founders firstapproached the administration, “asyoung professionals, with very concreteand practical ideas about ways in which the Green Wave and Marine Labadministration could work together…As a consequence of this effort and theleadership behind it, sustainability andstewardship have become an everydaypart of the Marine Lab culture.”

Laura Cloak MEM’11 is the NicholasSchool’s student communications assistant.

Left to right, top to bottom: Marine Lab kitchen garden raised beds; Green Wave coordinator Rhema Bjorkland next to bean plants;Green Wave coordinator Noëlle Boucquey with harvested beans; Green Wave members with monofilament fishing line recycling canisters;‘Royal Purple’ green beans; onion blossom. Photos by Noëlle Boucquey, Rhema Bjorkland, and Zoe Meletis.

Student-Founded Green WaveServes as an ‘Environmental Conscience’ for Duke Marine Lab

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By Laura Cloak

A vision for a marine research and teaching campus with a strong culture of stewardship and sustainability inspiredthree PhD students at the Duke UniversityMarine Lab in Beaufort, N.C., intoaction. In 2006, Zoe Meletis, ElliottHazen and Leigh Torres founded theGreen Wave, a student group with goalsto transform the Marine Lab into agreener place to study, work, and live.

Now, four years later, the GreenWave remains an active force on PiversIsland, with a list of environmentalimprovements to its credit and a committed group of students workingfull-steam ahead to achieve even more.

“There is a strong culture of environ-mental awareness that has grown fromthe Green Wave’s efforts,” says CindyLee Van Dover, director of the MarineLab. Van Dover has been involved with the group since its beginning. She and other faculty and staff have supported the group in its efforts to minimize the Marine Lab’s footprint and establish itself as a green leader—leading by example—in the community.

“I support the Green Wave as muchas possible and turn to them for adviceon environmental issues at the Lab,” Van Dover says. For example, the group was asked to help with a study of green practices in boat building as thestaff begins to think about a replacingthe Susan Hudson, one of the MarineLab’s research vessels.

Some of the group’s major accom-plishments so far include attaining North Carolina Clean Marina status for the Lab’s marina; founding a ‘Greenby Design’ course and a popular weeklyseminar series; conducting a lab-wideenergy audit; and establishing a kitchen

garden and a compost pile. The ‘Green by Design’ course is a

full-credit, semester-long course held inthe fall for Marine Lab undergraduates andMaster of Environmental Managementstudents. The focus of the course variesslightly each time it is held, depending on its instructors, explains PhD studentNoëlle Boucquey. “Essentially, the course is designed to foster creative, critical thinking about practical solutionstoward environmental and social sustainability in the world we live in,”she explains.

Boucquey has been involved with theGreen Wave for about six months. Herfavorite project is the Marine Lab’s garden.

“Over the summer of 2009 I managedthe newly installed garden, where weexperimented with what types of vegetablesand herbs would grow best at the Laband be most useful for the dining hall,”she says. “We found that tomatoes werequite difficult to grow, but that severaldifferent herbs—cilantro, thyme, sage,dill and basil—grew well and could be added to dining hall dishes for freshflavoring.”

Under Boucquey’s direction, a smallrain barrel has been installed to collectwater from the dining hall’s roof, forwatering the garden. “We’re hoping toget an even larger one this year,” she says.

This past fall marked the third consecutive year for the Green Wave’sseminar series—a weekly series that PhDstudent Rhema Bjorkland describes asbeing so popular that it was covered byNational Public Radio in its first year.The seminar places an emphasis on local and community-based, sustainableissues such as fisheries, wind energy, or community-based food systems.

The Green Wave was able to hire a sustainability intern for this spring.

Christen Brown, an undergrad fromWittenberg University studying at theMarine Lab for a semester, will be working to increase student involvementin Green Wave activities and to act as acreative director for the group’s projects.“We hope that by establishing thisinternship, the Green Wave’s studentinfrastructure will become more perma-nent, and that new ideas will continuallybe implemented,” Boucquey explains.

The group’s vision extends beyondthe island, into the surrounding villages,towns and countryside. Providing opportunities for increased interactionbetween local residents and Marine Labstudents, staff and faculty continues tobe a priority. All Green Wave seminarsare open to the public, and students inthe ‘Green by Design’ course take fieldtrips to different areas of CarteretCounty to observe environmental issuesand sustainable business practices.

“All of the Green Wave’s projects are dependent upon dedicated studentaction,” Boucquey says proudly. “Fromits beginning, the success of the group’sprojects has grown directly from the initiative of student leaders.”

Van Dover agrees. She rememberswhen the group’s three founders firstapproached the administration, “asyoung professionals, with very concreteand practical ideas about ways in which the Green Wave and Marine Labadministration could work together…As a consequence of this effort and theleadership behind it, sustainability andstewardship have become an everydaypart of the Marine Lab culture.”

Laura Cloak MEM’11 is the NicholasSchool’s student communications assistant.

Left to right, top to bottom: Marine Lab kitchen garden raised beds; Green Wave coordinator Rhema Bjorkland next to bean plants;Green Wave coordinator Noëlle Boucquey with harvested beans; Green Wave members with monofilament fishing line recycling canisters;‘Royal Purple’ green beans; onion blossom. Photos by Noëlle Boucquey, Rhema Bjorkland, and Zoe Meletis.

Student-Founded Green WaveServes as an ‘Environmental Conscience’ for Duke Marine Lab

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Duke Student’sOrganizationLaunches Online‘Green’ CollegeDirectory

Students looking to apply to college have a new online tool to help them in their search. A free directory of environmentalinformation at nearly 2,000 U.S. colleges and universities isnow available at www.ourearth.org.

The directory, which is the first of its kind, provides listingsof environmental degree programs as well as environmentalopportunities and organizations at campuses around the country.

“This is a unique resource that enables students who havean interest in protecting the environment to discover environ-mental degrees and programs that they might not even knowexisted,” says Our Earth founder, John Ullman, who is pursuing concurrent masters degrees at Duke’s Nicholas Schooland Fuqua School of Business.

“Equally as powerful, it enables students to view videos,share ideas, and learn about successful initiatives at other colleges, which they can then bring to their own campuses.”

The directory was created by student volunteers at 40 campuses nationwide, including undergraduate and graduatestudents at Duke. It offers extensive information on undergraduate,masters and PhD degree programs at nearly 2,000 colleges and universities. Fields of study span a wide range of environmental disciplines. The directory also includes links to campus carbon inventories and recycling opportunities,environmentally focused student clubs and organizations, and environmental opportunities in the local community.

Bill Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School, says, “OurEarth has provided a valuable resource. There has been suchan explosion of environmental programs recently that it’sbecome almost impossible to keep up. As a faculty memberneeding to advise students on opportunities around the coun-try, I’ll be visiting Our Earth’s Web site on a regular basis.”

OurEarth.org is a nonprofit organization, Web site andgrassroots initiative founded in 2006 by Ullman and classmatesof his when he was an undergraduate at Johns HopkinsUniversity. “Our goal is to transform the way the public finds environmental information,” he says. “The new directoryis the first of a series of innovative environmental tools we’re developing.”

The way in which the directory was created is as novel asthe directory itself, he adds. “Our Earth’s coalition of studentvolunteers, its strong academic roots and extensive connectionsin the environmental community are key to its success. Collegestudents and university faculty members are always involved in its projects, and its efforts are supported by dozens of otherenvironmental leaders from around the country.”

Nicholas School StudentsPitch in to Relocate Turtlesin Duke GardensPhotos by Les Todd

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A plan to turn a small pond in the Duke Gardens into a sedimentation pond could have spelled disaster for the turtleswho called it home. But thanks to a group of nine NicholasSchool students, 11 turtles were rescued and safely relocatedto another pond in the gardens.

Second-year Master of Environmental Management student Maura Nowalk spearheaded the relocation in the fall after hearing about the plan to empty and dredge thepond, which she knew to be a home to many turtles.

“Knowing that a lot of the work was planned for the winter months, I was concerned that much of the constructionwould be done while the turtles were hiding and vulnerable,and that there would be a significant number that wouldn’tmake it as a result of this project if something wasn’t done,”says Nowalk, who is vice president of the Duke StudentAssociation of Wetland Scientists (SAWS).

Through her contacts at the Duke University WetlandCenter, Nowalk connected with Paul Jones, a curator at theDuke Gardens, who had alerted the Wetland Center afterhearing about the plans to turn the pond into a sedimentationpond as part of a new hospital construction project. Nowalkworked with Jones to schedule a turtle rescue day before theanimals began hibernating.

“I knew there were a lot of people at the Nicholas School

who would be interested in a project where we got to get inthe mud and save some turtles,” Nowalk says.

To make the turtles easier to find, Jones lowered the waterlevel in the pond to concentrate the turtles in a smaller area.By noon, the water level was low enough to allow the studentsto begin. Throughout the afternoon, they used hand nets to tryto catch as many turtles as they could find.

“Some people sank to their waists in muck, and it tooksome time and energy to wiggle them out,” Nowalk says.

The NicNats, a student group at the Nicholas School dedicated to improving student interaction with the naturalworld, teamed up with Nowalk and her SAWS volunteers onthe rescue and relocation project.

By day’s end, 11 turtles in all were caught, with five speciesrepresented. Although she had expected to find more turtles,Nowalk considers the event a success. “We got nine peopleoutside, they learned some things about turtles, and we saved11 turtles that might otherwise have been killed during theconstruction,” she says.

The turtles were relocated into a bigger pond at DukeGardens. A fence, installed part of the way around the old pond,will help discourage them from returning to their old home.

-Laura Cloak, MEM’11Maura Nowalk

dukenvironment 24

Duke Student’sOrganizationLaunches Online‘Green’ CollegeDirectory

Students looking to apply to college have a new online tool to help them in their search. A free directory of environmentalinformation at nearly 2,000 U.S. colleges and universities isnow available at www.ourearth.org.

The directory, which is the first of its kind, provides listingsof environmental degree programs as well as environmentalopportunities and organizations at campuses around the country.

“This is a unique resource that enables students who havean interest in protecting the environment to discover environ-mental degrees and programs that they might not even knowexisted,” says Our Earth founder, John Ullman, who is pursuing concurrent masters degrees at Duke’s Nicholas Schooland Fuqua School of Business.

“Equally as powerful, it enables students to view videos,share ideas, and learn about successful initiatives at other colleges, which they can then bring to their own campuses.”

The directory was created by student volunteers at 40 campuses nationwide, including undergraduate and graduatestudents at Duke. It offers extensive information on undergraduate,masters and PhD degree programs at nearly 2,000 colleges and universities. Fields of study span a wide range of environmental disciplines. The directory also includes links to campus carbon inventories and recycling opportunities,environmentally focused student clubs and organizations, and environmental opportunities in the local community.

Bill Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School, says, “OurEarth has provided a valuable resource. There has been suchan explosion of environmental programs recently that it’sbecome almost impossible to keep up. As a faculty memberneeding to advise students on opportunities around the coun-try, I’ll be visiting Our Earth’s Web site on a regular basis.”

OurEarth.org is a nonprofit organization, Web site andgrassroots initiative founded in 2006 by Ullman and classmatesof his when he was an undergraduate at Johns HopkinsUniversity. “Our goal is to transform the way the public finds environmental information,” he says. “The new directoryis the first of a series of innovative environmental tools we’re developing.”

The way in which the directory was created is as novel asthe directory itself, he adds. “Our Earth’s coalition of studentvolunteers, its strong academic roots and extensive connectionsin the environmental community are key to its success. Collegestudents and university faculty members are always involved in its projects, and its efforts are supported by dozens of otherenvironmental leaders from around the country.”

Nicholas School StudentsPitch in to Relocate Turtlesin Duke GardensPhotos by Les Todd

AC

TIO

Nstudent news

A plan to turn a small pond in the Duke Gardens into a sedimentation pond could have spelled disaster for the turtleswho called it home. But thanks to a group of nine NicholasSchool students, 11 turtles were rescued and safely relocatedto another pond in the gardens.

Second-year Master of Environmental Management student Maura Nowalk spearheaded the relocation in the fall after hearing about the plan to empty and dredge thepond, which she knew to be a home to many turtles.

“Knowing that a lot of the work was planned for the winter months, I was concerned that much of the constructionwould be done while the turtles were hiding and vulnerable,and that there would be a significant number that wouldn’tmake it as a result of this project if something wasn’t done,”says Nowalk, who is vice president of the Duke StudentAssociation of Wetland Scientists (SAWS).

Through her contacts at the Duke University WetlandCenter, Nowalk connected with Paul Jones, a curator at theDuke Gardens, who had alerted the Wetland Center afterhearing about the plans to turn the pond into a sedimentationpond as part of a new hospital construction project. Nowalkworked with Jones to schedule a turtle rescue day before theanimals began hibernating.

“I knew there were a lot of people at the Nicholas School

who would be interested in a project where we got to get inthe mud and save some turtles,” Nowalk says.

To make the turtles easier to find, Jones lowered the waterlevel in the pond to concentrate the turtles in a smaller area.By noon, the water level was low enough to allow the studentsto begin. Throughout the afternoon, they used hand nets to tryto catch as many turtles as they could find.

“Some people sank to their waists in muck, and it tooksome time and energy to wiggle them out,” Nowalk says.

The NicNats, a student group at the Nicholas School dedicated to improving student interaction with the naturalworld, teamed up with Nowalk and her SAWS volunteers onthe rescue and relocation project.

By day’s end, 11 turtles in all were caught, with five speciesrepresented. Although she had expected to find more turtles,Nowalk considers the event a success. “We got nine peopleoutside, they learned some things about turtles, and we saved11 turtles that might otherwise have been killed during theconstruction,” she says.

The turtles were relocated into a bigger pond at DukeGardens. A fence, installed part of the way around the old pond,will help discourage them from returning to their old home.

-Laura Cloak, MEM’11Maura Nowalk

dukenvironment 26

“People build deep relationships withother people and then I’d say the nexttier is they build relationships with theland,” says Jeff Fisher MEM’00.

Forging both kinds of relationshipsis what Fisher and his partner GuenevereAbernathy do. Their real-estate company,Unique Places, based in Durham, N.C.,is a hybrid of a nonprofit land trustand a for-profit real estate developer.Since 2005, Fisher and Abernathy haveworked with landowners and investorsto protect land in the Southeast.

Protecting Lands and Preserving HeritageIn 2007, Sam Whitehurst turned to UniquePlaces for help with his 2,000 acres inCraven County—property acquired by the family centuries ago from a king’s land grant. With a new highway cutting

through an area that was experiencing agrowth spurt, Whitehurst was concernedabout encroaching development. Theproperty, well-managed for generations,was in good shape.

“We were going to lose the land and the way we own it,” says Whitehurst.“And more importantly, the public wasgoing to lose.”

To prevent such losses, he began workingwith a land trust to see what incentiveswere available.

“It’s very hard work for all concerned,”says Whitehurst. “A lot of negotiationsand a lot of agreements had to be made. I tried.”

He also found it time-consuming, and even though he was driven by a “deep family feeling of wanting to protectthat property,” progress was slow, results

inchoate. That’s when he hired UniquePlaces, which helped turn Whitehurst’svision into reality.

“People inherently know it’s importantto protect their land—it’s like a book ofwho they are, their family’s heritage,”Fisher says. “Unique Places helps landownersachieve that preservation, while maximizingtheir return on the land. When protectionis good for water quality and clean air, theprivate and public meet at the same place.”

Whitehurst was pleased with theresults. Working with a land trust and state and federal partners, Fisher helpedcarve out a conservation plan that turned135 acres of wetlands and longleaf standsinto a county nature park, added 430 acres to a state-owned natural area, andprotected 181 acres of forest through aworking-lands conservation easement.

Turning Conservation Assets IntoProtected Land and an Income SourceConservation easements and carbonsequestration are “externality” conceptsthat Fisher studied in the ResourceEconomics and Policy tract at theNicholas School.

Matching up properties withappropriate externalities—oftenunknown commodities to landownerswho hold them—is one of UniquePlaces’ specialties. Fisher and Abernathybring their experience with land trusts,real estate law, and conservation fundingto identify which payments, tax credits,tax deductions, cash opportunities andother incentives landowners can tap to derive value from their land whilemaximizing conservation.

Fisher’s time at the Nicholas School

laid the cornerstone for his work.“Duke played a large part in my

decision to pursue a business likeUnique Places,” says Fisher. “Whathas been very exciting is to take thoseacademic terms I learned at theNicholas School and turn them intoreal-world projects and specificallyland conservation.”

It’s a complex process. But Fisherand Abernathy are fluent in translatingdifferent land management practicesinto landowner transactions that generate value and institute long-termconservation. Their conservation plansallow landowners to preserve historyand conserve their land’s ecosystemassets far into the future while carry-ing community benefits such as cleanair, clean water and viewsheds.

“If you’re in the Falls Lake water-shed,” explains Fisher, “which iswhere Raleigh gets all its drinkingwater, the actions that an individuallandowner can take to protect waterquality provide benefits all the waydownstream, and all people drinkingthat water benefit.”

Unique Places Founded to Boost Fundingand Land ConservationBefore joining forces on their entrepre-neurial venture, Fisher and Abernathyboth worked for different land trusts.Abernathy, who holds a masters degreein Parks, Recreation and TourismManagement from N.C. StateUniversity, had managed land-trustprojects at The Nature Conservancy(TNC) and Triangle Land Conservancy.

AL

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PR

OF

ILEsightings

WITH THE LAND MEM Alum Jeff Fisher and His Partner Combine Consulting Expertise with Real Estate Investmentto Help Landowners Protect Their Property for the Next Generation by Erica Rowell

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

“We were going to lose the land and the waywe own it,” says Whitehurst. “And moreimportantly, the public was going to lose.”Sam Whitehurst • Whitehurst farm

Left to right: Jeff Fisher and Guenevere Abernathy in their office; Whitehurst Farm; Jeff Fisher and Sam Whitehurst at the Whitehurst Farm. All story photos by Bret Frk except image of Jeff and Guenevere (left) taken by Lissa Gotwals.

dukenvironment 26

“People build deep relationships withother people and then I’d say the nexttier is they build relationships with theland,” says Jeff Fisher MEM’00.

Forging both kinds of relationshipsis what Fisher and his partner GuenevereAbernathy do. Their real-estate company,Unique Places, based in Durham, N.C.,is a hybrid of a nonprofit land trustand a for-profit real estate developer.Since 2005, Fisher and Abernathy haveworked with landowners and investorsto protect land in the Southeast.

Protecting Lands and Preserving HeritageIn 2007, Sam Whitehurst turned to UniquePlaces for help with his 2,000 acres inCraven County—property acquired by the family centuries ago from a king’s land grant. With a new highway cutting

through an area that was experiencing agrowth spurt, Whitehurst was concernedabout encroaching development. Theproperty, well-managed for generations,was in good shape.

“We were going to lose the land and the way we own it,” says Whitehurst.“And more importantly, the public wasgoing to lose.”

To prevent such losses, he began workingwith a land trust to see what incentiveswere available.

“It’s very hard work for all concerned,”says Whitehurst. “A lot of negotiationsand a lot of agreements had to be made. I tried.”

He also found it time-consuming, and even though he was driven by a “deep family feeling of wanting to protectthat property,” progress was slow, results

inchoate. That’s when he hired UniquePlaces, which helped turn Whitehurst’svision into reality.

“People inherently know it’s importantto protect their land—it’s like a book ofwho they are, their family’s heritage,”Fisher says. “Unique Places helps landownersachieve that preservation, while maximizingtheir return on the land. When protectionis good for water quality and clean air, theprivate and public meet at the same place.”

Whitehurst was pleased with theresults. Working with a land trust and state and federal partners, Fisher helpedcarve out a conservation plan that turned135 acres of wetlands and longleaf standsinto a county nature park, added 430 acres to a state-owned natural area, andprotected 181 acres of forest through aworking-lands conservation easement.

Turning Conservation Assets IntoProtected Land and an Income SourceConservation easements and carbonsequestration are “externality” conceptsthat Fisher studied in the ResourceEconomics and Policy tract at theNicholas School.

Matching up properties withappropriate externalities—oftenunknown commodities to landownerswho hold them—is one of UniquePlaces’ specialties. Fisher and Abernathybring their experience with land trusts,real estate law, and conservation fundingto identify which payments, tax credits,tax deductions, cash opportunities andother incentives landowners can tap to derive value from their land whilemaximizing conservation.

Fisher’s time at the Nicholas School

laid the cornerstone for his work.“Duke played a large part in my

decision to pursue a business likeUnique Places,” says Fisher. “Whathas been very exciting is to take thoseacademic terms I learned at theNicholas School and turn them intoreal-world projects and specificallyland conservation.”

It’s a complex process. But Fisherand Abernathy are fluent in translatingdifferent land management practicesinto landowner transactions that generate value and institute long-termconservation. Their conservation plansallow landowners to preserve historyand conserve their land’s ecosystemassets far into the future while carry-ing community benefits such as cleanair, clean water and viewsheds.

“If you’re in the Falls Lake water-shed,” explains Fisher, “which iswhere Raleigh gets all its drinkingwater, the actions that an individuallandowner can take to protect waterquality provide benefits all the waydownstream, and all people drinkingthat water benefit.”

Unique Places Founded to Boost Fundingand Land ConservationBefore joining forces on their entrepre-neurial venture, Fisher and Abernathyboth worked for different land trusts.Abernathy, who holds a masters degreein Parks, Recreation and TourismManagement from N.C. StateUniversity, had managed land-trustprojects at The Nature Conservancy(TNC) and Triangle Land Conservancy.

AL

UM

NI

PR

OF

ILEsightings

WITH THE LAND MEM Alum Jeff Fisher and His Partner Combine Consulting Expertise with Real Estate Investmentto Help Landowners Protect Their Property for the Next Generation by Erica Rowell

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

“We were going to lose the land and the waywe own it,” says Whitehurst. “And moreimportantly, the public was going to lose.”Sam Whitehurst • Whitehurst farm

Left to right: Jeff Fisher and Guenevere Abernathy in their office; Whitehurst Farm; Jeff Fisher and Sam Whitehurst at the Whitehurst Farm. All story photos by Bret Frk except image of Jeff and Guenevere (left) taken by Lissa Gotwals.

“What has been very exciting is to take thoseacademic terms I learned at the Nicholas School and turn them into real-world projectsand specifically land conservation.”Jeff Fisher • Unique Places

dukenvironment 28

Fisher, who got his law degree fromthe University of North Carolina,Chapel Hill, while getting his MEMfrom Duke, had worked for both TNCand Tar River Land Conservancy.Prior to Unique Places, they raised atotal of some $95 million in land conservation funding and helped protect $150 million of real estate.What spurred their desire to go intobusiness was their observation thatthere was too little funding for theconservation potential.

They struck upon the same for-profit idea independently; then Fisherpitched Abernathy his idea of a business partnership over coffee.

Says Abernathy, “He put a projectin front of me that I really wanted to work on. And I knew it would bebetter to be working together on a biggerpicture because we both had differentstrengths we bring to the table.”

That project was an expansion of

North Carolina’s Chimney Rock State Park—259 acres that would link disjointed parkland on the edge of the ecologically rich Blue Ridge Mountains. The sticking pointsinvolved three separate landowners,property already on the market withinterested developers, and conservationpartners without enough funds to buy. Unique Places ended up purchasingthe land and then selling it to a conservancy that went on to sell theland to the state.

The success of Chimney Rock wasall it took for Fisher and Abernathy,who had worked and socialized in thesame circles for years, to realize thebenefits of becoming partners.

Today, after just five short years of existence, their eight investment and 28 consulting projects add up to roughly $6 million of private investment capital and 7,000 acres of protected lands.

Unique Places’ Real Estate OfferingsWhile there are companies that focuson different pieces of what UniquePlaces does—such as wetlands mitigationand real estate investment—Fisherdoes not “believe there are other companies that do what we do, whichis to combine consulting expertise withreal estate investment to conserve landwith a for-profit model.”

Certainly the many hats the twopartners wear are impressive.

To accurately assess a given property,Fisher and Abernathy get to know the land inside and out, and thatmeans walking it and recognizing itsmany features.

“Walking around with ecologistsand hydrologists so that I’m able toconverse at their level lends a lot ofcredibility,” says Fisher, adding, “andthat’s where all the advanced biology,watershed hydrology, and dendrologystudies at Duke come in handy.”

Critical to his work is his knowledgeof geographic information systems or GIS.

“GIS courses I took at the NicholasSchool were definitely the most practicalskill,” says Fisher. “Everything aboutconservation real estate has to do withmaps so the ability to make a map orread one is essential.”

For each project, Unique Placescreates a “property atlas,” which listsall the conservation assets that theyand their partners have identified.They assemble all these data into separate maps, detailing all aspects of the land from soil type, elevation,slope, viewshed analysis, wetlands,hydrology, and forestlands to naturalheritage elements.

Then looking at it from a planningperspective, they lay out a range ofpotential scenarios for the property—from the undesired (maximizing devel-opment) to the desired (maximizing

conservation) and everything inbetween. They present this to theclient, who then has decision-makingto do.

His position, says Fisher, is truly a combination of being a biologist,watershed hydrologist, a GIS specialistand a real estate developer.

Of the many roles they play in the process, problem solver might bethe best overarching description fortheir work.

In the case of Poole farm, UniquePlaces was brought in to resolve the problem of putting farmland protections on land owned by fivemarried siblings, some of whom wantedto sell. Unique Places’ solution wasfirst to buy the property, then enlist a handful of partners to purchase conservation easements. The end resultwas 89 acres of permanently protectedopen space and development limited to just six homesites on the farm’s

least environmentally sensitive lands. In the case of the Harris farm,

Unique Places is helping the HarrisFamily protect their 3,200 acres inFranklin County, N.C., as workingfarmland and forestland, while developinga sustainable source of revenue.

Protecting Endangered Species on aMountain and Water Quality on a FarmProtecting a land’s conservation values is the driving force behindUnique Places.

“When we talk about land,”explains Abernathy, “we’re also talking about the water that runsthrough it which is important fordrinking water, habitat protection for all types of plants and animals,important air quality that comes from the trees, scenic values, andrecreational opportunities—all thesethings make up a high quality of lifefor communities.”

AL

UM

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OF

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Left to right: Chimney Rock, N.C.; Bridal Cove, N.C.; Harris Farm; Clyde and CP Harris with Jeff and Guenevere on the Harris Farm, a 3,200 acre site in Franklin County, N.C.

Mr. Harris hired Unique Places to develop a long-termconservation strategy that would protect the propertyas working farmland and forestland and provide asustainable source of revenue. Harris farm

“What has been very exciting is to take thoseacademic terms I learned at the Nicholas School and turn them into real-world projectsand specifically land conservation.”Jeff Fisher • Unique Places

dukenvironment 28

Fisher, who got his law degree fromthe University of North Carolina,Chapel Hill, while getting his MEMfrom Duke, had worked for both TNCand Tar River Land Conservancy.Prior to Unique Places, they raised atotal of some $95 million in land conservation funding and helped protect $150 million of real estate.What spurred their desire to go intobusiness was their observation thatthere was too little funding for theconservation potential.

They struck upon the same for-profit idea independently; then Fisherpitched Abernathy his idea of a business partnership over coffee.

Says Abernathy, “He put a projectin front of me that I really wanted to work on. And I knew it would bebetter to be working together on a biggerpicture because we both had differentstrengths we bring to the table.”

That project was an expansion of

North Carolina’s Chimney Rock State Park—259 acres that would link disjointed parkland on the edge of the ecologically rich Blue Ridge Mountains. The sticking pointsinvolved three separate landowners,property already on the market withinterested developers, and conservationpartners without enough funds to buy. Unique Places ended up purchasingthe land and then selling it to a conservancy that went on to sell theland to the state.

The success of Chimney Rock wasall it took for Fisher and Abernathy,who had worked and socialized in thesame circles for years, to realize thebenefits of becoming partners.

Today, after just five short years of existence, their eight investment and 28 consulting projects add up to roughly $6 million of private investment capital and 7,000 acres of protected lands.

Unique Places’ Real Estate OfferingsWhile there are companies that focuson different pieces of what UniquePlaces does—such as wetlands mitigationand real estate investment—Fisherdoes not “believe there are other companies that do what we do, whichis to combine consulting expertise withreal estate investment to conserve landwith a for-profit model.”

Certainly the many hats the twopartners wear are impressive.

To accurately assess a given property,Fisher and Abernathy get to know the land inside and out, and thatmeans walking it and recognizing itsmany features.

“Walking around with ecologistsand hydrologists so that I’m able toconverse at their level lends a lot ofcredibility,” says Fisher, adding, “andthat’s where all the advanced biology,watershed hydrology, and dendrologystudies at Duke come in handy.”

Critical to his work is his knowledgeof geographic information systems or GIS.

“GIS courses I took at the NicholasSchool were definitely the most practicalskill,” says Fisher. “Everything aboutconservation real estate has to do withmaps so the ability to make a map orread one is essential.”

For each project, Unique Placescreates a “property atlas,” which listsall the conservation assets that theyand their partners have identified.They assemble all these data into separate maps, detailing all aspects of the land from soil type, elevation,slope, viewshed analysis, wetlands,hydrology, and forestlands to naturalheritage elements.

Then looking at it from a planningperspective, they lay out a range ofpotential scenarios for the property—from the undesired (maximizing devel-opment) to the desired (maximizing

conservation) and everything inbetween. They present this to theclient, who then has decision-makingto do.

His position, says Fisher, is truly a combination of being a biologist,watershed hydrologist, a GIS specialistand a real estate developer.

Of the many roles they play in the process, problem solver might bethe best overarching description fortheir work.

In the case of Poole farm, UniquePlaces was brought in to resolve the problem of putting farmland protections on land owned by fivemarried siblings, some of whom wantedto sell. Unique Places’ solution wasfirst to buy the property, then enlist a handful of partners to purchase conservation easements. The end resultwas 89 acres of permanently protectedopen space and development limited to just six homesites on the farm’s

least environmentally sensitive lands. In the case of the Harris farm,

Unique Places is helping the HarrisFamily protect their 3,200 acres inFranklin County, N.C., as workingfarmland and forestland, while developinga sustainable source of revenue.

Protecting Endangered Species on aMountain and Water Quality on a FarmProtecting a land’s conservation values is the driving force behindUnique Places.

“When we talk about land,”explains Abernathy, “we’re also talking about the water that runsthrough it which is important fordrinking water, habitat protection for all types of plants and animals,important air quality that comes from the trees, scenic values, andrecreational opportunities—all thesethings make up a high quality of lifefor communities.”

AL

UM

NI

PR

OF

ILEsightings

Left to right: Chimney Rock, N.C.; Bridal Cove, N.C.; Harris Farm; Clyde and CP Harris with Jeff and Guenevere on the Harris Farm, a 3,200 acre site in Franklin County, N.C.

Mr. Harris hired Unique Places to develop a long-termconservation strategy that would protect the propertyas working farmland and forestland and provide asustainable source of revenue. Harris farm

dukenvironment 30

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WSsightings

careermatters

As I look toward the end of my 20th year in June, and yes the start of my 21styear, I thank all alumni of DUFES, NSOE and NSOEES for your help throughoutthe years. You are the best.

Career Services values all the job/internship leads we receive, including thosefor more experienced professionals we post on the Nicholas School LinkedIngroup for alumni to view. Your willingness to give advice to students reachingout to you about a specific career field has been invaluable. We encourage all alumni to continue this great tradition of the Nicholas Community helpingeach other.

Today I offer additional opportunities for alumni to expand or reignite their connection to career services, Nicholas School and Duke.

Serve as an Organizational Client • Group MP project: Employers collaborate with students to complete a self-

contained, substantive project or research that is needed for moving an initiative forward. With faculty support, students serve as a consultingresource. No fee is charged and projects typically last for six to seven months.

• Professional Management Skills for Environmental Professionals course: This is case-study based and student teams interview client organizations to become familiar with their mission, vision, values, organizational design,and communication and decision-making processes. Once knowledgeable ofchallenges the organization faces, student teams develop a strategic plan forthe organization as a final project. Client commitment is three to four hoursduring fall semester. If you are interested, e-mail deb.gallagher@duke.edu byJune 2010.

Expand Your Organization’s Recruiting Connection with Duke Promote your organization’s summer internship or employment opportunities to the Duke community at our new Dukewide Just-in-Time Hiring Career Fair.(The first fair was held April 14). It’s one-stop recruiting event for every organi-zation to meet undergraduate and graduate students, including professional students from Nicholas School, Fuqua School of Business, Duke Law, andSanford School of Public Policy. Check out the Web site atwww.nicholas.duke.edu/dukenvironment/sightings

Thank you for your support,

Karen KirchofAssistant Dean for Career Serviceskgki@duke.edu

Rethink Your Connection

When Unique Places was approachedto help with TNC’s acquisition ofroughly half of a 114-acre tract thatwas adjacent to a preserve, the projectbegan as a straightforward investmentopportunity. Then they stumbled upona well-hidden asset on the land: thebog turtle, America’s smallest turtleand an endangered species to boot. Thediscovery changed everything—or atleast half of everything. TNC decidedto buy the entire tract.

“Now,” says Abernathy “we’reprotecting 114 acres instead of 50.”

Seeing the big picture is one of UniquePlaces’ aims. And though the companytends to take on big projects, they areopen to working on innovative projects.

Julia German, who owns 24 acresof her family’s 185-acre working farm,wants to develop a sustainable farm onher property. A recent graduate of DukeLaw, Julia has forged a relationshipwith local tenant farmers, and created

an innovative long-term lease agree-ment that essentially gives her rentersthe same rights an owner would have.The idea is to eradicate some of thehurdles small farmers typically runinto on rented property.

But as ready as the farmers are tobegin farming, the German farmland isnot. Among many needs are fences forcows and funding for a primary well.Addressing these issues is expensiveand yet another reason first-generationfarmers struggle to get by.

German knew there was fundingfor water-quality protections, but shealso knew finding those funds wascomplicated and not unlike the proverbialneedle in a haystack. So she hiredUnique Places.

“She’s trying to have a viable farmand before she can get paid to get a well,she has to fence all the cattle out,”says Fisher. “There are three differentfunding sources—some will pay for

the well, some will pay for it but onlyif there’s fencing. It’s very complex.”

German has confidence in the outcome.

She says, “Fisher has the knowledgeof how to get from Point A to Point B‘I have a well.’”

Fisher loves the challenge. It’s one of the many puzzle pieces UniquePlaces is fitting together for the farm.

“Understanding the land is allabout stacking and seeing,” says Fisher.“That’s the way GIS works, layers.You see a big stack of ecosystem assetsand you know you have a lot of valuethere. Then the question is, how do we monetize that for landowners.”

Erica Rowell is managing editor of DeanChameides’ blog, TheGreenGrok.com. She is based in New York City.

online watch video of jeff fishertalking about his work with Unique Places nicholas.duke.edu/jfisher

Left to right: Bridal Cove, N.C.; North fork of the New River

>

online Other Projects in UniquePlaces’ Portfolio include:

Harris Farm in Franklin Co.Helping the Harris Family protect their 3,200 acres asworking farmland & forestlandwhile developing a sustainable source of revenue.

Bridal Cove, Watauga CountyDesigned a conservation development with 100-plus acres of protected land and a handful of homesites.

More online atuniqueplacesllc.com

>

dukenvironment 30

AL

UM

NI

NE

WSsightings

careermatters

As I look toward the end of my 20th year in June, and yes the start of my 21styear, I thank all alumni of DUFES, NSOE and NSOEES for your help throughoutthe years. You are the best.

Career Services values all the job/internship leads we receive, including thosefor more experienced professionals we post on the Nicholas School LinkedIngroup for alumni to view. Your willingness to give advice to students reachingout to you about a specific career field has been invaluable. We encourage all alumni to continue this great tradition of the Nicholas Community helpingeach other.

Today I offer additional opportunities for alumni to expand or reignite their connection to career services, Nicholas School and Duke.

Serve as an Organizational Client • Group MP project: Employers collaborate with students to complete a self-

contained, substantive project or research that is needed for moving an initiative forward. With faculty support, students serve as a consultingresource. No fee is charged and projects typically last for six to seven months.

• Professional Management Skills for Environmental Professionals course: This is case-study based and student teams interview client organizations to become familiar with their mission, vision, values, organizational design,and communication and decision-making processes. Once knowledgeable ofchallenges the organization faces, student teams develop a strategic plan forthe organization as a final project. Client commitment is three to four hoursduring fall semester. If you are interested, e-mail deb.gallagher@duke.edu byJune 2010.

Expand Your Organization’s Recruiting Connection with Duke Promote your organization’s summer internship or employment opportunities to the Duke community at our new Dukewide Just-in-Time Hiring Career Fair.(The first fair was held April 14). It’s one-stop recruiting event for every organi-zation to meet undergraduate and graduate students, including professional students from Nicholas School, Fuqua School of Business, Duke Law, andSanford School of Public Policy. Check out the Web site atwww.nicholas.duke.edu/dukenvironment/sightings

Thank you for your support,

Karen KirchofAssistant Dean for Career Serviceskgki@duke.edu

Rethink Your Connection

When Unique Places was approachedto help with TNC’s acquisition ofroughly half of a 114-acre tract thatwas adjacent to a preserve, the projectbegan as a straightforward investmentopportunity. Then they stumbled upona well-hidden asset on the land: thebog turtle, America’s smallest turtleand an endangered species to boot. Thediscovery changed everything—or atleast half of everything. TNC decidedto buy the entire tract.

“Now,” says Abernathy “we’reprotecting 114 acres instead of 50.”

Seeing the big picture is one of UniquePlaces’ aims. And though the companytends to take on big projects, they areopen to working on innovative projects.

Julia German, who owns 24 acresof her family’s 185-acre working farm,wants to develop a sustainable farm onher property. A recent graduate of DukeLaw, Julia has forged a relationshipwith local tenant farmers, and created

an innovative long-term lease agree-ment that essentially gives her rentersthe same rights an owner would have.The idea is to eradicate some of thehurdles small farmers typically runinto on rented property.

But as ready as the farmers are tobegin farming, the German farmland isnot. Among many needs are fences forcows and funding for a primary well.Addressing these issues is expensiveand yet another reason first-generationfarmers struggle to get by.

German knew there was fundingfor water-quality protections, but shealso knew finding those funds wascomplicated and not unlike the proverbialneedle in a haystack. So she hiredUnique Places.

“She’s trying to have a viable farmand before she can get paid to get a well,she has to fence all the cattle out,”says Fisher. “There are three differentfunding sources—some will pay for

the well, some will pay for it but onlyif there’s fencing. It’s very complex.”

German has confidence in the outcome.

She says, “Fisher has the knowledgeof how to get from Point A to Point B‘I have a well.’”

Fisher loves the challenge. It’s one of the many puzzle pieces UniquePlaces is fitting together for the farm.

“Understanding the land is allabout stacking and seeing,” says Fisher.“That’s the way GIS works, layers.You see a big stack of ecosystem assetsand you know you have a lot of valuethere. Then the question is, how do we monetize that for landowners.”

Erica Rowell is managing editor of DeanChameides’ blog, TheGreenGrok.com. She is based in New York City.

online watch video of jeff fishertalking about his work with Unique Places nicholas.duke.edu/jfisher

Left to right: Bridal Cove, N.C.; North fork of the New River

>

online Other Projects in UniquePlaces’ Portfolio include:

Harris Farm in Franklin Co.Helping the Harris Family protect their 3,200 acres asworking farmland & forestlandwhile developing a sustainable source of revenue.

Bridal Cove, Watauga CountyDesigned a conservation development with 100-plus acres of protected land and a handful of homesites.

More online atuniqueplacesllc.com

>

Saving our planet from myriad, daunting environmental threats will take extraordinary expertise, creativity, leadershipand vision.

It will take out-of-the-box, “blue sky” thinking, saysNicholas School of the Environment Dean Bill Chameides.

“At the Nicholas School, we see these complex environ-mental issues through a unique prism: one that views theEarth, the environment, and people and human institutions as an integrated whole, and uses that understanding to fosterand spread the ethic of environmental stewardship,” Chameidesexplains. “We’ve assembled a faculty of extraordinarily brightand committed men and women—you see some of their inspiring work in each issue of this magazine. But we’ve got abig mountain to climb, and we can’t do it alone.”

To provide the resources needed to make that thinking—and doing—possible, the Nicholas School has launched BlueSky, the leadership giving level of the Nicholas School AnnualFund. This inner circle of supporters is comprised of forward-thinking, action-oriented individuals who recognize the criticalissues facing our environment, believe in the Nicholas School’scapacity to lead the way in addressing these issues, and arewilling to invest the resources needed for the school to continuethis important work.

Leaders in annual givingThrough their leadership annual commitment to the school,Blue Sky members provide vital, unrestricted resources to support cutting-edge research and education at the school: initiatives that, because of their innovative nature and the complexity and magnitude of the issues they seek to address,are best advanced through this versatile style of funding.

Lynn Gorguze, chair of the Nicholas School’s Board ofVisitors, is one of the founding members of Blue Sky. “Theenvironmental problems facing our planet seem overwhelming,but Nicholas School students, faculty and alumni are makingheadway on almost every important issue,” she says.

“Duke’s Nicholas School is the best of its kind, and thewisdom and energy at the school inspire me. Education hasalways been a top philanthropic priority for my family. I amhonored to support, through Blue Sky, the Nicholas School’sprograms, research and especially the students who will leadthe effort to preserve our precious planet.”

The School’s inner circleBlue Sky members commit $10,000 or more per year to theNicholas School Annual Fund. As part of the school’s inner circle, members receive invitations to, and special seating at,the school’s most exclusive events, including the Duke LEAFAward for Lifetime Environmental Achievement in the Fine Artsand the Environment and Society Lecture Series. They alsoreceive regular insider email updates from the Nicholas SchoolDean on the latest faculty research, programs and studentachievements; “first looks” at newly published faculty researchand white papers; an annual webinar with a Nicholas Schoolfaculty member to hear his or her take on important environmentalnews; and a commemorative plate made of recycled glass.

The Vanguard of Blue Sky is reserved for members whocommit $25,000 or more per year. As the leading members of Blue Sky, the Vanguard have the opportunity to attend anexclusive environmental retreat each year, and receive a personal, autographed copy of each newly published book byNicholas School faculty members and a special invitation to an intimate reception honoring the Duke LEAF Award winner.To commemorate the launch of Blue Sky, founding memberswho make a three-year giving commitment also receive a commemorative platter.

“My commitment to Duke is based on several factors,”explains Tom McMurray, another board member who has joinedthe Vanguard of Blue Sky as a founding member. “I am a Duke grad and a Duke parent. I also work full-time running the Marine Ventures Foundation, and my involvement with the Nicholas School provides an opportunity for me to gain abroader exposure to global environmental issues and to refinemy foundation’s mission to protect the planet. There arenumerous organizations in the United States where this is pos-sible: I just like the way Duke does it.”

The bottom line, McMurray says: “Leadership is key to protecting the planet and making the world a better place. We each have the power and the responsibility to do all wecan. I can do Blue Sky.”

To join Blue Sky, or to learn more, visitwww.nicholas.duke.edu/bluesky or call 919-613-8003.

Laura Ertel is a freelance writer based in Durham, N.C.

With Launch of ‘Blue Sky,’the Sky is the LimitNICHOLAS SCHOOL’S NEW LEADERSHIP ANNUAL GIVING SOCIETY BRINGS TOGETHER FORWARD-THINKING INDIVIDUALS TO INVEST IN CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE By Laura Ertel

dukenvironment 32

dukenvironment is printed on Utopia 2XG paper; this paper is manu-factured with electricity in the form of renewable energy (wind,hydro, and biogas), virgin pulp from certified sources, and a minimumof 30% post-consumer recovered fiber. Please recycle this magazine.

Mark your calendar for the following dates and monitor our

Web site at nicholas.duke.edu for additional events.

UP

CO

MIN

GE

VE

NT

Smonitor

save the date

a greener magazine

april 16Nicholas School Alumni Council MeetingTime TBDThe Siena Hotel, Chapel HillContact: Celeste Brogdon919-613-8035 orceleste.brogdon@duke.edu

may 14Masters Project SymposiumDuke Environmental Leadership Program DEL-MEM candidate masters project presentationsLevine Science Research Center, West CampusContact: DEL Office919-613-8082 or del@nicholas.duke.edu

april 17Jackson Browne LEAF Award Presentation2 p.m.Page Auditorium, Duke Campus Contact: Celeste Brogdon919-613-8035 orceleste.brogdon@duke.edu

may 15Nicholas School Recognition Ceremony forGraduate and Professional Degree CandidatesKeynote Speaker: Joseph E. Aldy MEM ’95,Resources for the Future Fellow, Co-director, Harvard Project on International Climate AgreementsLevine Science Research Center LawnUniversity West CampusContact: Nancy Kelly919-613-8090 or nkelly@duke.edu

april 29-30

august 8-13American Geophysical Union 2010The Meeting of the AmericasRafain Hotel and Convention CenterFoz do Iguassu, BrazilContact: AGU1-800-966-2481 or ja-help@agu.org

may 7-8Nicholas Experience at the Marine Lab“70 Years of Duke Marine Lab: A Celebration”Duke Marine Lab, Beaufort, N.C.Contact: Celeste Brogdonceleste.brogdon@duke.edu919-613-8035 or Quiana Mortonquiana.morton@duke.edu919-613-8001

fpo

Masters Project Symposium in BeaufortMEM candidates, Coastal EnvironmentalManagement program masters projectpresentationsDuke University Marine LabContact: Lauren Stulgis252-504-7531 orlauren.stulgis@duke.edu

spring 2010

G I V I N G

nature & nurture

Saving our planet from myriad, daunting environmental threats will take extraordinary expertise, creativity, leadershipand vision.

It will take out-of-the-box, “blue sky” thinking, saysNicholas School of the Environment Dean Bill Chameides.

“At the Nicholas School, we see these complex environ-mental issues through a unique prism: one that views theEarth, the environment, and people and human institutions as an integrated whole, and uses that understanding to fosterand spread the ethic of environmental stewardship,” Chameidesexplains. “We’ve assembled a faculty of extraordinarily brightand committed men and women—you see some of their inspiring work in each issue of this magazine. But we’ve got abig mountain to climb, and we can’t do it alone.”

To provide the resources needed to make that thinking—and doing—possible, the Nicholas School has launched BlueSky, the leadership giving level of the Nicholas School AnnualFund. This inner circle of supporters is comprised of forward-thinking, action-oriented individuals who recognize the criticalissues facing our environment, believe in the Nicholas School’scapacity to lead the way in addressing these issues, and arewilling to invest the resources needed for the school to continuethis important work.

Leaders in annual givingThrough their leadership annual commitment to the school,Blue Sky members provide vital, unrestricted resources to support cutting-edge research and education at the school: initiatives that, because of their innovative nature and the complexity and magnitude of the issues they seek to address,are best advanced through this versatile style of funding.

Lynn Gorguze, chair of the Nicholas School’s Board ofVisitors, is one of the founding members of Blue Sky. “Theenvironmental problems facing our planet seem overwhelming,but Nicholas School students, faculty and alumni are makingheadway on almost every important issue,” she says.

“Duke’s Nicholas School is the best of its kind, and thewisdom and energy at the school inspire me. Education hasalways been a top philanthropic priority for my family. I amhonored to support, through Blue Sky, the Nicholas School’sprograms, research and especially the students who will leadthe effort to preserve our precious planet.”

The School’s inner circleBlue Sky members commit $10,000 or more per year to theNicholas School Annual Fund. As part of the school’s inner circle, members receive invitations to, and special seating at,the school’s most exclusive events, including the Duke LEAFAward for Lifetime Environmental Achievement in the Fine Artsand the Environment and Society Lecture Series. They alsoreceive regular insider email updates from the Nicholas SchoolDean on the latest faculty research, programs and studentachievements; “first looks” at newly published faculty researchand white papers; an annual webinar with a Nicholas Schoolfaculty member to hear his or her take on important environmentalnews; and a commemorative plate made of recycled glass.

The Vanguard of Blue Sky is reserved for members whocommit $25,000 or more per year. As the leading members of Blue Sky, the Vanguard have the opportunity to attend anexclusive environmental retreat each year, and receive a personal, autographed copy of each newly published book byNicholas School faculty members and a special invitation to an intimate reception honoring the Duke LEAF Award winner.To commemorate the launch of Blue Sky, founding memberswho make a three-year giving commitment also receive a commemorative platter.

“My commitment to Duke is based on several factors,”explains Tom McMurray, another board member who has joinedthe Vanguard of Blue Sky as a founding member. “I am a Duke grad and a Duke parent. I also work full-time running the Marine Ventures Foundation, and my involvement with the Nicholas School provides an opportunity for me to gain abroader exposure to global environmental issues and to refinemy foundation’s mission to protect the planet. There arenumerous organizations in the United States where this is pos-sible: I just like the way Duke does it.”

The bottom line, McMurray says: “Leadership is key to protecting the planet and making the world a better place. We each have the power and the responsibility to do all wecan. I can do Blue Sky.”

To join Blue Sky, or to learn more, visitwww.nicholas.duke.edu/bluesky or call 919-613-8003.

Laura Ertel is a freelance writer based in Durham, N.C.

With Launch of ‘Blue Sky,’the Sky is the LimitNICHOLAS SCHOOL’S NEW LEADERSHIP ANNUAL GIVING SOCIETY BRINGS TOGETHER FORWARD-THINKING INDIVIDUALS TO INVEST IN CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE By Laura Ertel

dukenvironment 32

dukenvironment is printed on Utopia 2XG paper; this paper is manu-factured with electricity in the form of renewable energy (wind,hydro, and biogas), virgin pulp from certified sources, and a minimumof 30% post-consumer recovered fiber. Please recycle this magazine.

Mark your calendar for the following dates and monitor our

Web site at nicholas.duke.edu for additional events.

UP

CO

MIN

GE

VE

NT

Smonitor

save the date

a greener magazine

april 16Nicholas School Alumni Council MeetingTime TBDThe Siena Hotel, Chapel HillContact: Celeste Brogdon919-613-8035 orceleste.brogdon@duke.edu

may 14Masters Project SymposiumDuke Environmental Leadership Program DEL-MEM candidate masters project presentationsLevine Science Research Center, West CampusContact: DEL Office919-613-8082 or del@nicholas.duke.edu

april 17Jackson Browne LEAF Award Presentation2 p.m.Page Auditorium, Duke Campus Contact: Celeste Brogdon919-613-8035 orceleste.brogdon@duke.edu

may 15Nicholas School Recognition Ceremony forGraduate and Professional Degree CandidatesKeynote Speaker: Joseph E. Aldy MEM ’95,Resources for the Future Fellow, Co-director, Harvard Project on International Climate AgreementsLevine Science Research Center LawnUniversity West CampusContact: Nancy Kelly919-613-8090 or nkelly@duke.edu

april 29-30

august 8-13American Geophysical Union 2010The Meeting of the AmericasRafain Hotel and Convention CenterFoz do Iguassu, BrazilContact: AGU1-800-966-2481 or ja-help@agu.org

may 7-8Nicholas Experience at the Marine Lab“70 Years of Duke Marine Lab: A Celebration”Duke Marine Lab, Beaufort, N.C.Contact: Celeste Brogdonceleste.brogdon@duke.edu919-613-8035 or Quiana Mortonquiana.morton@duke.edu919-613-8001

fpo

Masters Project Symposium in BeaufortMEM candidates, Coastal EnvironmentalManagement program masters projectpresentationsDuke University Marine LabContact: Lauren Stulgis252-504-7531 orlauren.stulgis@duke.edu

spring 2010

G I V I N G

nature & nurture

dukenvironmentNICHOLAS SCHOOL OF THE ENVIRONMENT • SPRING 2010

The Nicholas School asked youto show us in 3 words how youwould make the environment

better... and you did...

SEE THE WINNING VIDEOS

green in 3

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ICHOLASSCHOOL

OF

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ONMENT

DUKEU

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90328 D

URHAM, N

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#60

presented on April 8, 2010 by Vice President and Nobel Laureate

AL GORE

Look for the story and photos in the fall dukenvironment

THE DEAN’S SERIESDuke Environment and Society Lecture