It’s Getting Hot In Here

Cross-Posted from The Point News, the campus paper of St. Mary’s College of Maryland

While the United States Congress has yet to pass comprehensive climate change legislation and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change seems to like negotiating more than creating legally binding treaties, students have been very successful at tackling climate change on campus.  Two weeks ago in Kansas City, Missouri, I gave a presentation at the National Collegiate Honors Conference with fellow SMCM students Rachel Waldron and Jimmy Ferioli titled “Cross Currents of Environmentalism: Academics and Activism” that reminded me that colleges and universities really are being forces for change, cutting carbon, and helping to build the clean energy economy.

The American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, which commits institutions to becoming carbon neutral, has 675 signatories to date (including St. Mary’s College of Maryland).  This agreement must be signed by the chancellor or president and is a very clear sign that climate change is no longer a fringe issue that only a fraction of students care about.  It’s an issue that is of enough concern to warrant institutional recognition and action.  Even if colleges aren’t signatories to the PCC, chances are that they are trying to get favorable scores on the Princeton Review’s Green Rating System, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), or the College Sustainability Report Card.  These ranking systems give positive recognition for schools that have organic farms on campus, purchase renewable energy, composting, and promote eco friendly habits such as walking, biking, and using public transit.  While this might not see substantial, according to a survey done by Princeton Review, 68 percent of prospective students prefer colleges or universities that have a commitment to sustainability.  All in all, it’s clear that change is coming to the American university.

Continue reading ‘Students and Campuses Leading the Way in Sustainability’

It has officially been over three months since the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill started in the Gulf of Mexico.  In that time President Barack Obama has appointed an oil spill team, met with BP executives, gone to Louisiana, and addressed the nation.  He’s even appointed an Oil Spill Team to handle the crisis.  Granted, none of this has stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf, but it at least gives the impression that Obama is committed to solving this climate crisis and preventing similar events from happening in the future.  That we have a leader committed to environmental justice and corporate accountability for BP.  How I wish that this were the case.

In his address to the nation President Obama stated that he had frozen all off shore oil drilling permits for at least six months in order for new and better regulations to be created and implemented.  It was music to my ears.  Finally someone was realizing that regulation of business is sometimes necessary to protect both people and the planet.  However, recently it has been revealed that the Obama administration has approved plans by both BP and Shell Oil to drill a total of 11 exploratory wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas above Alaska.  Wait, WHAT?  We’re granting more permits to the very same company that has destroyed peoples lives, work, and ecological treasures in the Gulf?  We’re allowing them to potentially ruin the Alaska wilderness?  Really?  Is our government incapable of understanding that a fossil fuel economy is no longer justifiable?  When will our government finally wake up?  After every ecological treasure in the country is destroyed and everyone is jobless?

Luckily for humanity, communities and activists are working on solutions to protect people and the planet. Continue reading ‘Government Failing, Communities Succeeding’

From April 9^th to 11^th I attended the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change interim negotiations in Bonn, Germany.  This session was the first meeting of the convention since Copenhagen in December and the goal was to create a negotiating schedule for the months leading up to COP16 in Cancun.  It was supposed to be everything that Copenhagen wasn’t: low-key, productive, and inclusive. I wish I could tell you that the meetings were efficient and resulted in an action plan for 2010, but I cannot.  In fact, by 6:30 pm on Sunday when I left to catch a train back home, the plenary sessions for the day had yet to begin (they were scheduled to start at 11:30 am) and no decisions regarding further meetings of the UNFCCC before Cancun had been reached. Despite the lack of journalists, disgruntled Non Governmental Organizations, and activists taking to the streets in frustration, the United Nations could not even get it together to schedule some meetings and come up with an action plan for how to move forward after the failure that was Copenhagen.

Meanwhile, outside of the United Nations territory, climate change is wreaking havoc on communities and youth are struggling to understand why the United Nations feel the freedom to waste our time when climate change is happening now and will not delay no matter how many meetings do or do not happen.  Last week in West Virginia, 29 employees of Massey Energy died as a result of an explosion at a mining site, the worst coal mining tragedy since 1970.  On April 15^th, several activists attended a hearing on Capital Hill titled “The Role of Coal in a New Energy Age” and confronted dirty energy CEOs about the human and ecological implications of coal mining.  And all across the nation, youth climate activists are meeting with their elected officials and informing that they need to Show Me Democracy by taking leadership on climate change legislation.  Clearly, activists and climate change are not waiting for the United Nations.

Continue reading ‘Climate Change and Activists Won’t Delay, But United Nations Will’

Originally published on Youthradio.org, the premier source for youth generated news throughout the globe.

By: Caitlin Grey

As a high school senior and an ardent environmentalist, I have mixed feelings about new legislation in various states that would change science curricula to include “other views” on climate change, the way some school districts have tried to open the theory of evolution up for debate. I know the goal of such legislation–to downplay the severity of climate change and to cast doubt on its manmade causes–is against everything I stand for as an advocate for all things green. And yet there’s something pretty convincing about how lawmakers have framed these bills: as catalysts for “open discussion” and “intellectual freedom.” I mean, who’s against that?

Indeed, often the most memorable parts of my classes are the fiery debates about contentious topics. It’s when I learn the most. Like when my environmental science teacher led my class in a discussion about the pros and cons of nuclear energy. I’ve always been against building nuclear power plants, which got me into ideological tiffs with some classmates. But being forced to use facts and data I had read in my textbook to hold my own is probably the only reason I remember so much about something I was once so opposed to. Continue reading ‘A Classroom View of Climate Deniers’