Somerset County 4-H member James Meier has been selected to attend National 4-H Congress scheduled for Nov. 27-Dec. 1 in Atlanta… James will be part of the New Jersey delegation of 17 teen 4-H members from nine counties (Atlantic, Cumberland, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic and Somerset)… National 4-H Congress is the premiere national educational and recognition event for the 4-H youth development program. For over 90 years, youth from the United States and its territories have participated in this youth leadership development conference… The theme for 2015 event is “Excite, Spark, Ignite.” The conference will focus on the Cooperative Extension System’s belief that young people can be significant partners in addressing the issues that face our nation, especially those affecting youth. The educational programs were developed for National Congress by a design team of youth and adults from around the country… The 4-H Youth Development Program is part of Rutgers Cooperative Extension, a unit of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.
Archives for 2015
$3,000 for Lunch? Little Splurges Add up if You’re Not Careful
Dining out a few times per week might not seem like a big deal … until you do the math. On average, Americans spend about $20 per week getting lunch in restaurants, or $1,043 a year, according to a survey out last week of 2,033 people by Visa taken i…
Fueling the Next Generation: 2015 Recipients of the Jerome Goldstein Scholarship Fund for EcoEntrepreneuring
Jerome Goldstein (1931-2012) was the founding editor and publisher of BioCycle and founder of The JG Press, Inc. Goldstein, considered an ecopioneer for his work in supporting the composting and organics recycling industries, was a 1952 graduate of Rutgers University. Upon his passing in 2012, his family established the Jerome Goldstein Scholarship Fund for EcoEntrepreneuring […]
Climate Change Affects Where We Find – and Catch – Fish
Fishery managers too often develop fishing rules expecting that the same species will be found in roughly the same place every year. Setting catch limits for fishing requires some assumptions – and until recently, one of them has been that the vast ocean, while subject to cycles, is basically stable over time. But new information challenges that notion, as scientists and some policymakers have grown increasingly aware of long-term shifts in the ocean environment… “It occurred to us that there was another story in there,” said Rutgers University scientist Dr. Malin Pinsky. “By looking at data that already existed from a new and different angle, we could pinpoint where fish populations were found – and if those locations changed over time.”… Fish, even of the same species, can spread across a large geographic range, but scientists can calculate where most of the population is concentrated – the geographic centerpoint. By comparing the location and depth of the trawl to the centerpoint of the population, Pinsky’s analysis shows how different fish populations have shifted over time.
Christie Vetoes Water Bill, Saying It Gives Too Much Power to Advisory Panel
Gov. Chris Christie’s conditional veto of a bill that would have required the state to accept scientific recommendations on the safe level of a toxic chemical may represent the governor’s latest effort to loosen government control of the chemical industry, or could be a signal to the Legislature to stay out of technical matters… DWQI chairman Dr. Keith Cooper, a Rutgers University toxicologist, said he had not seen the governor’s statement so could not comment on it, but noted the DWQI’s role is limited under the law to providing recommendations… Under Cooper’s leadership, the DWQI resumed its work in April 2014 and is now meeting more regularly after a hiatus of nearly four years during which environmentalists accused it of being “shut down” by the Christie administration, which wanted to avoid further regulation of the chemical industry.
Tasting History: Rutgers Celebrates 250 Years With Journey Through New Jersey Food
First, a butternut squash soup with apple cider and a bacon crumble… Next, roast bobwhite quail with cornbread stuffing that’s paired with a medallion of venison, cranberry compote, and a Madeira wine sauce… “I’m about to try venison for the first time,” says Greg Farrell, diving into the second course. He takes a bite and instantly nods his head in approval. “Oh, it’s good. Yeah.”… But Farrell is in the Rutgers Neilson Dining Hall on Douglass Campus. He’s one of 60 students enrolled in the freshman course “Rutgers 250: A Taste of Culinary History.”… The course, designed by William Hallman, chair of the Rutgers Department of Human Ecology, and ecology professors Cara Cuite and Mary Nucci, is part of the lead up to Rutgers’ 250th anniversary celebration that kicks off Tuesday… The best part Hallman says, was how often his lectures contained discussions of the impact both Rutgers and New Jersey have had on food evolution – from Rutgers’ role in developing tomatoes for the Campbell’s Soup Company in the 1930s, to Vineland, New Jersey being the birthplace of Welch’s Grape Juice.
Criminal Beliefs? NY’s Probe of Exxon Targets Big Oil Over Global Warming Stance
A government probe of ExxonMobil, which authorities say is aimed at finding out if the energy giant misled the public about the threat of global warming, is really an attempt to scare companies into silence, according to critics… Alan Robock, a meteorologist who signed a petition by 20 scientists in September calling for a federal investigation, explained his reasoning to FoxNews.com… “Exxon, which funded climate change research decades ago and understood the science, chose instead to fund a disinformation campaign to confuse the public… so as to continue to sell their products and make money,” Robock said, pointing to apparently-leaked Exxon documents which show that, at times, Exxon employed scientists who did worry about man-made warming, but that later on some of their scientists said the models had too much uncertainty to be relied on.
How Can the Jersey Shore Live with Massive Storms, Rising Sea Level?
Challenges the Jersey Coast faces post-Sandy and ways to better prepare for future storms, rising sea levels and other climate changes will be discussed in a unique debate-style forum being held in Ocean County later this month… The free, two-day con…
Climate Change and Extreme Weather: 32 Takes on 28 Events from 2014
The science of deciphering how much long-term climate change influences shorter-term weather and climate events continues to blossom. On Thursday, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) released its fourth annual special issue of the Bulletin of the AMS devoted to these attribution studies. Launched in 2012 as an experiment, the project hit a nerve: researchers and the public were both intensely interested in the connection between human-produced greenhouse gases and high-profile, high-impact weather… The authors present their findings as an alternative to the “Francis hypothesis”–the concept put forth by Jennifer Francis (Rutgers University) and colleagues that a weaker, more meandering jet stream attributed to polar warming and reduced Arctic sea ice is leading to greater extremes and more “stuck” weather patterns. If anything, these authors suggest, high-latitude effects might be tamping down extremes rather than goosing them. “The decrease in variance is a plausible consequence of polar amplification of global warming, since a decrease in the pole-to-equator temperature gradient reduces the strength of fluid dynamical instabilities,” they write.
Gliders From Rutgers Scan the Seas
The world’s oceans cover more than two-thirds of its surface, and they’re home to Earth’s largest heat reservoirs and vast natural resource deposits. Yet, much about them remains a mystery to us… “The ocean essentially regulates all life on earth and we don’t really know how it works,” said Professor Oscar Schofield, an oceanographer with Rutgers University’s Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory, or COOL. “Going to sea on a ship to do research can be dangerous, it’s very expensive, and it removes you from your family.”… But those days of logging long, arduous hours on a research vessel may be over, thanks to Rutgers’ fleet of ocean-going, submersible robots, which they call gliders.
