Pollution
Climate Change
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Sustainability at UML
Plants and Animals
Resource Cost
200
The Great Garbage Patch is in this ocean.
What is the Pacific?
200
In 2015, a senator brought a snowball into Congress as proof that this term does not exist.
What is global warming?
(How could it exist when snow is so cold?)
200
Massachusetts banned the disposal of these materials in 2022.
What are textiles?
(Try finding a collection bin or donating to a thrift store instead!)
200
Some of the herbs used in the dining halls are grown here.
What is a rooftop garden?
(There's also one on top of O'Leary on South Campus!)
200
This rigid structure differentiates plant cells from animal cells.
What is a cell wall?
200
This pop star's private jet produced over 8,000 tons of carbon dioxide last year, earning her place in the top polluters department.
Who is Taylor Swift?
400
Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor are all these types of gases that trap heat from the sun when present in the atmosphere.
What are greenhouse gases?
400
This year was the hottest in recorded history.
What is 2024?
400
Glass can be infinitely recycled, but would take this many years to naturally break down in a landfill.
What is 1 million years?
400
Sustainability is the most recent distinction added to this UML program where students earn a "mini-minor" by undertaking 2 courses and 2 experiences.
What is RHED?
(Other distinctions include Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Global Engagement, and Community Engagement.)
400
This is a term for a non-native species that damages a new ecosystem when introduced.
What is invasive?
400
A liter of cow's milk requires 628 liters of water to produce, while milk made from this nut requires only 371.
What are almonds?
(Soy and oat milk require 28 and 48 liters, respectively.
600
The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987, placed restrictions on these ozone-consuming compounds used in aerosols and refrigerants.
What are CFCs?
(They've been banned globally since 2010.)
600
By 2040 roughly 60% of this coastal city in Florida will be underwater due to sea level rise caused by climate change.
What is Miami?
600
The average person produces this many pounds of trash per day.
What is 5 pounds?
(The US totaled 292.4 million tons in 2018.)
600
The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) program measures sustainability in higher education. UML is currently rated this.
What is Gold?
600
UMass Lowell has two of these falcons that call the top of Fox Hall home, live-streamed 24/7.
What are Peregrine Falcons?
600
This concrete alternative can be made by taking hemp hurds and binding them with lime, water, and additives like sand; it even keeps the suffix '-crete.'
What is Hempcrete?
800
This is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
What is carbon sequestration?
800
An effect of climate change is more powerful tropical storms; when formed in the Atlantic or North Pacific they are called hurricanes, when formed in the Indian or South Pacific they are called this.
What is a cyclone?
800
Plastics are numbered 1-7. This number is commonly used in water bottles and is the most recycled plastic in the world.
What is #1 (PETE)?
800
Food waste at UML either goes to the aerobic digester at Tsongas Arena to be turned into energy or collected to become this type of fertilizer.
What is compost?
800
This animal, native to the east coast of Australia, was said to be a hoax; before a live specimen was seen, the taxidermied specimen was thought to be a combination of a duck and a mole.
What is a platypus?
800
This element is highly sought after for electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
What is Lithium?
(It's necessary to carry the charge between the battery's anode and cathode.)
1000
These 'forever chemicals' are made of long poly-fluoroalkyl chains and are found in non-stick pans, water-resistant clothing, and fire-fighting foam.
What are PFAS?
1000
This celestial phenomenon is a shift in Earth's tilt, precession, and wobble that increases the solar radiation hitting our planet.
What is orbital shifting?
(The primary cause of the last time Earth was this hot, roughly 125,000 years ago.)
1000
The first recorded example of paper recycling comes from this Asian country in 1034.
What is Japan?
(Today they have a paper recycling rate of 81.6% and a plastic recycling rate of 87%.)
1000
This hot sauce company based out of Lowell partners with the Office of Sustainability and even has some of its peppers grown on campus.
What is Craic Sauce?
1000
The heaviest organism on Earth is a colony of this type of tree, located in Utah's Fishlake National Forest, weighing an impressive 6,000 tons.
What are Aspen trees?
1000
This many gallons are required to produce one pair of jeans.
What is 2,000 gallons?