It\’s Getting Hot In Here

Tonight at the Week of Action screening of An Inconvenient Truth, Macalester College, a small liberal arts college in St. Paul Minnesota, declared war on the other competitors in Campus Wars. 14 Minnesota schools including Macalester are launching Campus Wars – a campus energy saving competition involving students, faculty, and administrators for the
month of February. The effort was organized by students in the Minnesota Public Interest Group and the Minnesota College Energy Coalition in coordination with the Week of Action. The campuses will compete to reduce total energy consumption in two categories (heating and electricity) measured as a percent reduction from the campuses previous 3-February average. The competition coincides with important energy legislation in the state and national legislature, and the expansion of a wide range of community efforts across Minnesota to confront global warming and build a new energy future.

Starting Thursday, the Energy Crusaders, coordinated by Macalester MPIRG and the Macalester Conservation and Renewable Energy Society, armed with emblazoned capes will mobilize Macalester for a power down.

Below is Macalester’s Declaration of War.

RESOLUTION: Declaring that a state of war exists between the below enumerated colleges and universities of Minnesota and the Students, Faculty, Staff and Administration of Macalester College and making provisions to prosecute the same.

These colleges being: Augsburg College, Carleton College, The College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, The College of St. Catherine, The College of St. Scholastica, Gustavus Adolphus College, Hamline University, Minnesota State University at Mankato; St. Mary’s University, St. Olaf College, The University of Minnesota at Duluth, The University of Minnesota at Morris, and The University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

Whereas all parties consume energy and emit Carbon Dioxide to an unacceptable degree;

And whereas competition in the spirit of energy efficiency may help to avert a grave future:

Therefore be it Resolved by the community of Macalester College assembled,
That the state of war between Macalester and the aforementioned Minnesota colleges is hereby formally declared;

and that the students, faculty, staff and administrators of Macalester are hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of Macalester College and the resources of its community to carry on war against aforementioned colleges and universities;

and, to bring the struggle against the energy and climate crises to a successful termination, all of the ingenuity, will power, and global citizenship of the college are hereby pledged by our Community.

Note: With apologies to the authors of the 1941 Declaration of War against Japan.