Sustainability

Glass with a past

When U alum Jodi McRaney-Rusho first explored creating art with post-consumer glass, she was met with discouraging responses from people in the glass art business. Some experienced artists flat out told her it couldn’t be done. McRaney-Rusho, who began working with recycled glass as a full-time artist in 2002, couldn’t let that stand in her […]


Spring snow a no-go?

Spring snowpack, relied on by ski resorts and water managers throughout the Western United States, may be more vulnerable to a warming climate in coming decades, according to a new University of Utah study. The study, accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, models the year-to-year variability in precipitation and temperature in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains […]


Why vultures matter – and what we lose if they’re gone

Vultures. Cartoon characters in parched deserts often wish them to disappear, since circling vultures are a stereotypical harbinger of death. But, joking aside, vultures in some parts of the world are in danger of disappearing. And according to a new report from University of Utah biologists, such a loss would have serious consequences for ecosystems […]


Which trees face death in drought?

  Two hundred-twenty-five million trees dead in the southwest in a 2002 drought. Three hundred million trees in Texas in 2011. Twelve million this past year in California.  Throughout the world, large numbers of trees are dying in extreme heat and drought events. Because mass die-offs can have critical consequences for the future of forests […]


How climate change dries up mountain streams

The western United States relies on mountain snow for its water supply. Water stored as snow in the mountains during winter replenishes groundwater and drives river runoff in spring, filling reservoirs for use later in summer. But how could a warming globe and a changing climate interrupt this process? In a new study published today […]


U Community Solar Returns

The University of Utah has announced the return of its very popular community solar energy installation program, U Community Solar, which offers U community members the opportunity to purchase discounted rooftop solar panels and installation for their homes. U Community Solar is open to all members of the university community, including faculty, staff, students, alumni […]


Authors to discuss Yellowstone and the national parks

In the centennial year of the National Park Service, the University of Utah Environmental Humanities graduate program hosts authors David Quammen and Terry Tempest Williams in a discussion about the national parks’ past and future, entitled “Yellowstone: Paradox of the Cultivated Wild.” The event will be held March 9, 2016 at 7 p.m. in the […]


What a moth’s nose knows

Moths sniff out others of their own species using specific pheromone blends. So if you transplant an antenna – the nose, essentially – from one species to another, which blend of pheromones does the moth respond to? The donor species’, or the recipients’? The answer is neither. Moths with transplanted antennae responded instead to a […]


Darwin’s finches may face extinction

Mathematical simulations at the University of Utah show parasitic flies may spell extinction for Darwin’s finches in the Galapagos Islands, but that pest-control efforts might save the birds that helped inspire the theory of evolution. The new study “shows that the fly has the potential to drive populations of the most common species of Darwin’s […]


Community Electric Cars Come to U Campus

[bs_well size=”md”]The U Drive Electric deadline has been extended into Jan. 31, 2016, due to popular demand. To receive the most current information, visit udriveelectric.org. [/bs_well] The University of Utah is the first university in the country to sponsor a community-level electric vehicle purchase program that includes discounts on multiple makes and models. U Community Drive Electric offers […]