Barnstable County Cape Cod Cooperative Extension
Shellfish Restoration and Nitrogen Cycling in Estuarine Environments
What is the science?
A One Day Conference
$35.00
9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Friday, May 8th 2009
Courtyard by Marriott – Hyannis, MA
Register before May 6, 2009
508-375-6690

The Social Environment Forum will be held on Thursday, April 30, at 7:00 pm in the Tisbury Senior Center, 34 Pine Tree Road, Vineyard Haven. It is free and open to the public. The last Island Plan forum on a specific topic looks at what challenges the Vineyard society faces today, what we anticipate in the future, and how we can best position ourselves to adjust to changing circumstances. There will be a panel made up of Laurie Halt (Assistant Superintendent, Martha's Vineyard Public Schools), Francine Kelly (Executive Director, Featherstone Center for the Arts), Sarah Kuh (Program Director, Vineyard Health Care Access), and Linda Sibley (Island Plan Steering Committee).The Social Environment Discussion Paper can be downloaded from the Island Plan website (www.islandplan.org) or obtained by calling the Martha's Vineyard Commission at 508-693-3453.

THE WOODS HOLE RESEARCH CENTER

Post-Doctoral Researcher – Carbon Export in Global Rivers, Job #PDMH01

The Woods Hole Research Center seeks a Post-Doctoral Researcher to work on an NSF-funded project investigating controls on the flux, age, and composition of terrestrial organic carbon exported by major global rivers to the ocean. This is a collaborative project involving scientists from the Woods Hole Research Center, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of New Hampshire, and elsewhere. Rivers/watersheds that are part of the study include the Congo, Ganges, Yangtze, Brahmaputra, Nelson, and rivers in Siberia. The position will be based at the Woods Hole Research Center, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, but it is essential that candidate be available for extended travel to remote international locations. Application deadline: June 6, 2009, or until filled. Start: Summer 2009 Salary Range: $45,000 to $50,000 with benefits Application Instructions: To apply, send cover letter referencing Job #PDMH01, curriculum vitae, and contact information for three references to jobopenings@whrc.org.

European astronomers said Tuesday that they had discovered the smallest planet yet found orbiting another star. The planet could be as little as only 1.9 times as massive as the Earth and belongs to a dim red star known as Gliese 581, which lies about 20 light-years from Earth in the constellation Libra.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/
science/22planet.html?_r=1&hpw

Two days after Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the United States, the Pew Research Center released a poll ranking the issues that Americans said were the most important priorities for this year. At the top of the list were several concerns — jobs and the economy — related to the current recession. Farther down, well after terrorism, deficit reduction and en¬ergy (and even something the pollsters characterized as “moral decline”) was climate change. It was priority No. 20. That was last place.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/
magazine/19Science-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

NEW YORK - Respect for the environment these days doesn't stop at death's door. Toxic chemicals, metal caskets, and concrete vaults, traditional tools of the burial trade, are giving way to options for going green even in death. The Parks and Wildlife Department in Texas plans to become the first government agency in the United States to let families lay cremated remains in protected forests for a fee to help the state buy more land for conservation.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/
articles/2009/04/19/
interest_in_ecofriendly_burials_grows_in_us/

Marking Earth Day, Senators John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts reintroduced a bill yesterday to permanently ban oil drilling in the Georges Bank fishing grounds. The legislation would put off limits to oil exploration all coastal waters three miles off the Massachusetts coastline, including Georges Bank.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/
articles/2009/04/23/
mass_senators_move_to_spare_georges_bank_from_drilling/

For the first time in the history of the heated Cape Wind debate, both sides seemed to walk away happy yesterday.

President Barack Obama used a broad-ranging Earth Day speech in Iowa to announce new regulations for offshore alternative energy projects, including the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm.

"Through the Department of Interior, we are establishing a program to authorize — for the first time — the leasing of federal waters for projects to generate electricity from wind as well as from ocean currents and other renewable sources," Obama said during the half-hour speech at Trinity Structural Towers Inc., a company that builds turbine towers in Newton, Iowa.

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/
pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090423/NEWS/904230313