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This Science Night series will consider Environmental
Concerns that directly impact
Long Island and Metropolitan New York.
Link here to be placed on the mail or e-mail list to receive
announcements.
Directions to
ESS Building at Stony Brook University
Teachers and Professional Geologists can receive
In-service Credit
Link to previous offerings Fall
2007, Spring 2008
Ground Level Ozone: the
Bad Ozone
Gilbert N. Hanson
Sunday September 14, 2008
7:00 p.m. ESS 001
The American Lung Association (2008) gives Suffolk
County an F, as in Failing, for the periods of high concentrations of
ground level ozone in its air. Even at low levels ozone can reduce lung
function; cause acute respiratory problems; aggravate asthma; cause
inflammation of lung tissue; and increase susceptibility to respiratory
infection. People begin feeling the effects of ozone at levels greater
than 50 ppb.
Ground level ozone is also dangerous to plants.
Increased levels of zone result in foliar injury and reduced growth in
plants. This results in reduced crop yields and forest production. Plants
can be affected at levels of 40 ppb and serious damage can occur at levels
greater than 80 ppb.
Ground level ozone is directly related to motor vehicle
exhaust. It is created when sunlight on a hot sunny day interacts with
organic compounds and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere forming smog and
ozone. Often the highest concentrations of ground level ozone are downwind
of metropolitan areas, such as Suffolk County, where natural organic
compounds from forested areas react with the nitrogen oxides. Prior to
World War II background levels of ground level ozone were 10 to 20 ppb.
Background levels are expected to increase by 0.5–2% per year as a result
of increased global emissions of nitrogen oxides unless there is an effort
to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions on a global scale. With continued global warming we can expect an increase in the
number of hot summer days which will result in increased ozone production
added to an expected increase in background ozone.
Pertinent Links
Lower atmosphere
basics: Ozone Smog
American Lung Association "State of the Air 2008" Suffolk County, NY gets
an F for Ozone Pollution
How to identify ozone injury on eastern forest bioindicator plants
Handbook for assessment of foliar ozone injury on vegetation in the
National Parks.
Global
economic effects of changes in crops, pasture, and forests due to changing
climate, carbon dioxide, and ozone
Sustainability
and
Stony Brook Southampton:
a New Paradigm in Education
Martin Schoonen
Sunday October 19, 2008
7:00 p.m. ESS 001
Sustainability is rapidly becoming a buzzword along with “greening”.
Global population growth, rising energy consumption, shrinking
non-renewable energy resources, and loss of arable land are some of the
factors that conspire to force a change in human behavior. The
transformation to a sustainable society will require a rethinking of
current consumption patterns, transportation systems, and housing among
other things. To affect the transition to a sustainable society will
require a new cadre of professionals. Professionals who have been trained
in tackling the complex problems at hand. At Stony Brook Southampton we
have initiated several new program that have been designed to train this
next generation of professionals at the undergraduate level.
Martin Schoonen, Interim Dean of
Stony Brook Southampton, will introduce the concept of sustainability and
discuss the new program launched at Southampton.
Martin Schoonen joined the faculty of the Department of Geosciences at
Stony Brook in 1989 after completing his Ph.D in Geochemistry and
Mineralogy at Penn State in 1989. He assumed the position of Interim Dean
of Southampton in September of 2006.
Link to Stony Brook
Southampton web site.
Patchogue: A Community in Transition
Paul V. Pontieri
Mayor Village of Patchogue
Sunday November 9, 2008
7:00 p.m. ESS 001
Since its Incorporation in 1893 the Village of
Patchogue has gone from a Port of Entry/industrial river community to a
tourist destination, with 1000 hotel rooms, to one of the largest
commercial/retail downtowns to a depressed, vacant downtown of the 1990’s.
It is now 2008 and Patchogue has begun its transition to a 21st
Century Village and Downtown Community of: Restaurants, Retail, a Hotel,
Theatre, and Affordable Artists’ Lofts all supported by an ambitious Work
Force Housing initiative designed to keep our young families home.
Mr. Pontieri is a retired school administrator and
former business owner who has been involved in Patchogue Village’s
government since 1986, serving for 11 years as Village Trustee and since
2004 as Mayor of Patchogue. While Mayor the following are just some of the
changes that have taken place to make Patchogue a more livable 21st
Century community.
1. Establishment of Copper Beech Village an 80 unit
Town House development with 50% work force housing
2. Three New Town House Developments have either
opened or are under construction, which have redeveloped blighted
properties
3. A 42 unit ArtSpace Development for affordable
work/housing for artists has been approved
4. The Site plan for the redevelopment of a section
of Downtown into a Hotel, Retail, and Commercial Hub with 200+ affordable
rental units is going through approval.
Links to
videos regarding Patchogue Redevelopment. (Be patient as they load.)
If your school requires that you have a
sequence of educational opportunities in order to receive in-service credit,
please advise them that during the Fall Semester we will be offering one-hour
of in-service credit for each of the:
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