Perhaps it's an old-fashioned concept, but once upon a time it was professors who set the example for the "kids."
WT At 01:09 PM 4/21/2006, Jeffrey D. Corbin wrote: >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?
