POLLUTION
CLIMATE CHANGE
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
UML
PLANTS AND ANIMALS
RESOURCES
200
The Great Garbage Patch is in this ocean.
What is the Pacific?
200
This feature of Earth absorbed 90% of the heat the planet gained between 1970 and 2010.
What are the oceans?
(In 2020 alone, it absorbed the joules of heat equivalent to two Hiroshima bombs per second.)
200
Plastics are numbered 1-7; not all of them are recyclable. This number is the most recycled plastic in the world, and is commonly used in water bottles.
What is #1 (polyethylene terephthalate, or PETE)?
200
Some of the herbs used in the dining halls are grown here.
What is University Crossing's rooftop garden?
200
UMass Lowell houses a pair of this type of falcon, as well as their chicks every nesting season, on the top of Fox Hall.
(They're also live-streamed 24/7!)
What is a Peregrine Falcon?
200
This pop star's private jet produced over 8,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide last year.
(This is equivalent to powering over 1,000 homes for a year, or burning over 40 railcars' worth of coal.)
Who is Taylor Swift?
400
Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor are all these types of gasses that trap heat from the sun present in the atmosphere.
What are greenhouse gasses?
400
This year was the hottest in recorded history.
What is 2024?
(1.6 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels.)
400
Massachusetts banned the disposal of these materials in 2022.
What are textiles?
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 River Hawk Experience Distinction (RHED)?
400
This is a term for a non-native species that damages an ecosystem when introduced.
What is invasive?
400
This element is highly sought after for electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
What is lithium?
600
This is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
What is carbon sequestration?
600
By 2040, 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 every day.
What is 5 pounds?
600
The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) program measures sustainability in colleges and universities. UML has this rating.
What is Platinum?
600
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service enacted this law in 1973, which protects at-risk fish, plants, and wildlife in the United States.
What is the Endangered Species Act?
600
A liter of cow's milk requires 628 liters of water to produce, while a liter of milk made from this requires 13-times less.
What are oats?
800
The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987, placed restrictions on these ozone-consuming compounds used in aerosols and refrigerants.
(They've been banned globally since 2010.)
What are chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)?
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
Glass is infinitely recyclable, but takes this many years to naturally break down in a landfill.
What is 1,000,000 years?
800
Food waste at UMass Lowell goes to the anaerobic digester at Tsongas Arena to be turned into energy, or collected to become this type of fertilizer.
What is compost?
800
This animal restored historic river flow patterns, stabilized elk populations, and brought bears, beavers, and ravens back to Yellowstone National Park after being reintroduced in 1995.
What is a gray wolf?
800
Infrastructure to run these software programs is projected to surpass Denmark, a country of 6,000,000 people, in annual water consumption.
What is artificial intelligence (AI)?
1000
These fine particles, often released from the burning of fossil fuels, have health consequences similar to cigarettes; however, they have also slowed global warming.
What are aerosols?
1000
This celestial phenomenon describes variation in Earth's tilt, orbit, and wobble that affects the distribution of solar radiation hitting our planet.
What are the Milankovitch Cycles?
1000
The first recorded instance of paper recycling comes from this East Asian country in 1031.
What is Japan?
1000
This hot sauce company based out of Lowell partners with the Office of Sustainability, and even grows peppers on the O'Leary rooftop garden.
What is Craic Sauce?
1000
This national wildlife refuge has the highest concentration of endemic species in the United States, in the most unlikely of places.
What is Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge?
1000
This many gallons of water are required to produce one pair of jeans.
What is 2,000 gallons?