Tag: UMaine

WERU News Report 1/28/15

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer/Reporter: John Greenman

Interactive news report covering issues with a local connection and taking calls. Today: Many Searsport veterans of the successful fight against a massive LPG tank in that town had just started a process of coming together with other residents to look at what kinds of economic development they DO want in town, when suddenly they found themselves faced with another proposed development that is raising alarms. We’ll be getting all the latest on that with our guests in the studio (Peter Taber and Harlan McLaughlin) and taking your calls as well. Before we start on that topic though, we want to take you to the University of Maine Trustee’s meeting on Monday where they made history by becoming the first land grant university system to vote to divest from coal.

WERU News Report 12/3/14

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: John Greenman

Program Topic: The University of Maine System today took a big step toward becoming the first public land grant system in the country to divest from coal. Two of the students who helped make that possible are with me here in the studio today to tell us how they did it, and what other plans they have up their sleeves — and then we’ll open the phone lines to your calls.

Connor Scott and Brooke Lyons-Justus are members of Maine Students for Climate Justice. Along with another student, Catherine Fletcher, they are also the co-founders of Divest UMaine at UMaine Orono. They’ve been working on fossil fuel divestment of the entire University of Maine system, which is 7 campuses and Maine Maritime Academy. Connor is also the student representative for the UMaine-Orono on the Board of Trustees.

WERU News Report 10/30/13

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by John Greenman

We’ve reported extensively on the re-write of Maine’s mining laws that is presently underway, and also on the situation in El Salvador, where those who resist mining have been threatened, jailed and even killed. Here in Maine, one of the giant Canadian Irving Corporation’s spin off companies and their lawyers, authored the new mining legislation- that was originally introduced in 2012—consisting of their wish list of changes to Maine’s mining laws. The company wants new regulations that would allow metallic mineral mining on Bald Mountain in Aroostook County, and elsewhere. They have the support of the LePage administration.
Stefano Tijerina is a Professor of History and Economics at UMaine and Husson University, and has worked in banking in the past. He has researched mining and free trade agreements in the US, Canada and Latin America. In a recent talk at the university, he focused on Canada’s role, and how it impacts us here in Maine:

(Professor Stefano Tijerina, with a segment of his presentation last week at UMaine, titled “Canada’s ‘Goodwill’ Revised—Mining, Capitalism, and Imperialism”. The talk was sponsored by the university’s Marxist and Socialist Studies lecture series, and was recorded by WERU’s John Greenman.)

WERU News Report 10/29/13

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by John Greenman

Efforts are underway at the University of Maine, to become the 3rd Maine college–following Unity College and College of the Atlantic–in divesting from the fossil fuel industry. Churches, universities, cities and organizations around the world are taking part in the quickly expanding fossil fuel divestment movement. Here in Maine, in addition to Unity College and COA, the First Unitarian Church of Pittsfield, is also taking part.
The Fossil Free Campaign was started by 350.org. According to their website, “200 publicly-traded companies hold the vast majority of the world’s proven coal, oil and gas reserves.” And their demands are that those companies: stop exploring for new hydrocarbons, stop lobbying for “special breaks”, and pledge to keep 80% of their current reserves underground forever.

Speakers include: UMaine alum Karen Marysdaughter, she’s with 350.org’s Maine chapter, and is working with students at the university; students Samantha Perez, President of the UMaine Green Team; Audrey Maddocks and Jonathan McCullem; and Misa Saros, former Campus Sustainability Coordinator at UMaine.

Related links:
FB: http://www.facebook.com/divest.umaine
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/29/fossil-fuels-divestment-campaign-gather-momentum
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/27/fossil-fuel-divestment-campaign-uk
http://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/research/stranded-assets/SAP-divestment-report-final.pdf
http://gofossilfree.org/commitments/

Investors challenge fossil fuel companies


https://www.ceres.org/files/car-mats/car-release/carbon-asset-risk-initiative-investor-signatories-as-of-october-2013/at_download/file
http://www.ceres.org/press/press-clips/wall-street-demands-answers-from-fossil-fuel-producers-on-unburnable-carbon

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303902404579151580498275194
http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/projects/research/climate-change-in-the-american-mind

WERU News Report 4/24/13

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by John Greenman

Segment 1: With parts of the University of Maine system facing cuts, it might seem that they are having some financial problems- but it turns out that they have quite a nest egg stashed away that they could be tapping into to avoid cutting programs, according to a new report by John Christie of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting (www.pinetreewatchdog.org)

Segment 2: Michael Figura, Legal Fellow with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, was in Maine Friday, speaking at a forum on the “National Defense Authorization Act’s “indefinite detention” provision, the PATRIOT Act, and related threats to civil liberties“. Friday’s forum at the Peace & Justice Center in Bangor, was one in a series of forums held in Maine towns. Organizer Jon Olson also spoke at the event.