Crossposted from Funding Our Future, the Campus Progress blog promoting policy that provides economic opportunities for our generation.
Is there any doubt left? The website where I found this cool image has more of these great visuals demonstrating the vast scientific consensus around climate action. As Van Jones said at the 2009 Campus Progress National Conference, if you went to 10 doctors because of a pierced lung and one of them (a Psychologist) told you you were fine while the other 9 said you desperately needed surgery, what would you do?
Unfortunately, scientific certainty isn’t the only contentious issue we are facing in the climate debate. Naysayers and fossil fuel enthusiasts consistently blurt out noise about how taking action on the climate crisis would bring about an economic disaster. Needless to say, those lies have no basis. To a certain extent, much of what is required in climate action (especially in the short term) is to level the playing field between energy efficiency and renewable energy and fossil fuels.
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if the Senate won’t let it happen, we have to take matters into our own hands. That’s what students in schools across the US are doing through the Green Cup Challenge (see http://www.greencupchallenge.net) – an inter-school energy reduction competition, sponsored by the non-profit Green Schools Alliance. To date, a total of 109 public and private schools in 22 states have signed on, with more expected. The Challenge, which begins January 25th and ends February 22nd, during peak (winter) energy use, asks participating schools to measure and reduce their electricity usage with a view to combating global warming. Top performing schools have achieved 18% energy reductions, saving thousands of dollars in utility costs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Nationally, that has added up. In 2009, 120 schools in 24 states reduced their aggregate carbon emissions by 2.5 million pounds: the equivalent of taking 220 cars off the road for one year. With some 132,600 schools in the U.S., you can envision the positive impact that a national school-based energy conservation movement could have. If students band together, we can decrease CO2 levels in schools across the country. Wouldn’t that put our politicians to shame??? They won’t do it, but kids will.