Today's column by the New York Times' Thomas Friedman=20 (http://select.nytimes.com/2006/04/21/opinion/21friedman.html?hp)=20 challenges colleges and universities to go "carbon-neutral".
The Greenest Generation By=20 <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/tho= maslfriedman/index.html?inline=3Dnyt-per>THOMAS=20 L. FRIEDMAN I was visiting Williams College a few days ago and heard a student speaker= =20 there mention that at the end of the day, she had gone back to her dorm=20 room to study and to "do it in the dark." Hey, I thought, I'm not a prude, but did she have to be so explicit =AD and= =20 in public, in front of parents no less? Fortunately, I quickly discovered that "doing it in the dark" is not some=20 new sexual escapade, but a new Williams energy-saving competition in honor= =20 of Earth Day. Student dorms, classrooms and campus buildings are pitted=20 against one another to see who can save the most energy. Students are=20 encouraged to turn off lights every time they leave a room, to unplug=20 cellphone chargers when not in use, to take advantage of daylight to study= =20 or use precise task lighting at night ("Do it in the dark!"), and to change= =20 old light bulbs to compact fluorescents. The Williams competition got me thinking. Why doesn't every college make it= =20 a goal to become carbon-neutral =AD that is, reduce its net CO2 emissions to= =20 zero? This should be a national movement. After all, today's students will= =20 be profoundly affected by climate change, the coming energy wars and the=20 rising danger of petro-authoritarian states, such as Iran. Yet on most=20 campuses, the whole energy-climate question still seems to be a student=20 hobby, not a crusade. C'mon kids, wake up and smell the CO2! Everybody =AD make your school do it= =20 in the dark! Take over your administration building, occupy your university= =20 president's office or storm in on the next meeting of your college's board= =20 of trustees until they agree to make your school carbon-neutral. (And while= =20 you're at it, ban gas-guzzling G.M. Hummers from your campus as well!) It is not that hard. Start by measuring exactly how much energy your=20 university is consuming and how much CO2 it is emitting, from its heating=20 and cooling of buildings to its transport systems. The Greenhouse Gas=20 Protocol, which can be downloaded from=20 <http://www.ghgprotocol.org>www.ghgprotocol.org, offers an internationally= =20 accepted way to measure greenhouse gas emissions. Once you determine your university's total CO2 emissions, the next step,=20 suggests Glenn Prickett, a senior vice president at Conservation=20 International, should be to have "your own graduate students in science and= =20 engineering develop their own comprehensive plan to reduce fossil fuel=20 consumption." They can turn to more efficient lighting, heating and=20 cooling; more hybrid vehicles; and better building design, including=20 renewable energy technologies like solar panels. After a college reduces its carbon emissions as much as possible, it can=20 then develop a strategy for offsetting the greenhouses gases it is still=20 putting into the atmosphere. To become carbon-neutral, you need to finance= =20 a project that will measurably reduce greenhouse gases, and it has to be a= =20 project that would not have happened if your school had not paid for it.=20 That's how you get the credit. You can pay to preserve rain forest land in the Amazon so trees there will= =20 not be burned, a major source of greenhouse gases, or plant forests in=20 Africa that will absorb carbon, or sponsor a project to turn landfill gas=20 into electricity. (G.M. does that!) In a partnership with Conservation=20 International, the band Pearl Jam offset all the emissions from its last=20 tour by paying to help communities preserve rain forest land in Madagascar.= =20 (That also helps reduce poverty and protect endangered wildlife.) "Our offices are carbon-neutral," said Jonathan Lash, president of the=20 World Resources Institute, which is ready to advise any campus on how to=20 proceed: call (202) 729-7600. "We worked through a broker and identified a= =20 school in Portland that needed to buy a new heating system because the old= =20 one was very inefficient and created a lot of greenhouse gas." The=20 institute helped pay for the new system, the school saved money and reduced= =20 its emissions, and W.R.I. got the offset for its own emissions. Al Gore eloquently argues that our parents' generation, the Greatest=20 Generation, turned back the black tide of fascism. They fought the war and= =20 built the institutions that preserved peace and freedom for a lot of people= =20 on this planet. Today's young people, Mr. Gore argues, have a parallel=20 task. Yes, he means you college students. You need to become what the writer Dan Pink calls "the Greenest=20 Generation," and build the institutions, alliances and programs that will=20 turn back the black tide of climate change and petro-authoritarianism,=20 which, if unchecked, will surely poison your world and your future as much= =20 as fascism once threatened to do to your parents' world and future. This is your challenge. Who will rise to it?
