Ecologue

What is the IPCC? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), created by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in 1988, is the “international body for assessing the science related to climate change.” Its purpose is to provide policymakers with assessments of the scientific literature on climate change, the impacts […]

What is Biodiversity? Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth. A single species is insignificant in the sense that it is one of billions, but it is actually of supreme importance, due to the interdependence of all life. We call this interdependence of life and its physical environment an ecosystem. An ecosystem can range […]

A simplified diagram of one specific ecosystem. Since Oregon State University is often associated with both natural resource management and engineering, it should be no surprise that we have a very active Ecological Engineering program. To understand what ecological engineering is, it helps to be acquainted with the concept of an ecosystem, and the study […]

The second annual Washington & Oregon Higher Education Sustainability Conference is February 25th through February 27th at the University of Washington! Last year was the first year that the Oregon Higher Education Sustainability Conference and the Washington Higher Education Sustainability Conference merged, forming WOHESC. The first WOHESC (2018) was a huge success, with over 600 […]

Water is a prerequisite for life, but currently over 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water. Water crises affect 2.8 billion people around the world at least one month out of each year. Scarcity is usually caused by climate change, increased pollution, and increased human demand for fresh water. Water scarcity is a […]

This year’s Pac-12 Sustainability Conference, at University of Colorado Boulder, resulted in some very exciting news! Unifi, Inc. and the Pac-12 Conference announced their long-term partnership in which Unifi will sponsor the annual Pac-12 Sustainability Conference and serve as the founding partner for the new Pac-12 Team Green. Richard Gerstein, Executive Vice President of premium […]

Oregon State’s Solar Trailer, which is outfitted with an 1800-watt solar array and 25 kilowatt-hours of battery storage, spends its days traveling around OSU and the community powering local events. This past weekend (July 14th and 15th), the Solar Trailer got to hang out at one of its favorite events, the Oregon Country Fair. It […]

On Wednesday, New York City became the first city in the world to report its progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2015, 193 countries agreed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals created by the UN; the SDGs are broad sustainability goals that encompass topics like environmental justice, poverty, and inequality and successful […]