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Students at the University of Massachusetts, along with the Five Colleges, are leading the charge against global warming and the energy crisis. From sustainability film screenings to renewable energy initiatives to open dialogues with the administration and faculty, individuals from our generation are making it known: we will not sit back and let this planet go from bad to worse without a fight.
Representatives of student environmentalist groups met in the UMass Campus Center on Monday to discuss their projects, common goals and future plans. Since each group is tackling the global warming problem in their own way, the theme of the meeting was cohesion and collaboration.
"We're all walking in the same direction, just not the same path," said Josh Stoffell, co-president of UMass Students for Environmental Awareness and Action (SEAA). Students at the meeting shared a strong sense of purpose as they made plans for pushing the movement ahead.
Kendra Fortin, a representative from the Smith College chapter of MassPIRG, introduced the idea of a Five College summit for organizations working toward carbon neutrality, sustainable energy and other solutions to come together and raise broad public awareness.
SEAA and Focus UMass on Global Warming, two of the groups present at the meeting, are already joining forces to run the Environmental Film Series throughout April. The first film of the series, Who Killed the Electric Car? was screened last week to a packed room. The next film, The Great Warming, will be shown on April 11 at 7 p.m. in Gordon Hall.
In addition to the film series, SEAA is taking part in the Presidents Climate Commitment, a nationwide push for college administrations to commit to reducing emissions and taking steps toward carbon neutrality. Ideas for the UMass campus range from attaching water recyclers to the new power plant under construction, to installing motion sensors in lighting for public spaces.
Focus UMass is working together with faculty to develop curriculum focused on global warming, said representative Cloee Cooper. The RSO is also organizing a Global Warming Awareness Week for February 2008.
This year, five UMass engineering students were finalists in mtvU's Eco Challenge, a national competition between student-run teams with the best ideas for "greening" their campuses. Alexander de Geofroy, Allyson Greene, Brendan Kemp, Matt Tinney and Nat Trask's proposal - the Human Power Plant - would have involved hooking up a power generator to stationary bikes and placing it in the Campus Center. Students would be able to race each other, charge their laptops and cell phones, and have a hands-on learning experience about the cost of energy all at once.
"We wanted to show people how much work goes into the energy that they take for granted," said de Geofroy.
Though his team did not win the first place prize, a $25,000 cash grant from MTV, de Geofroy said that he would be interested in building the project if they found another source of funding.
James Highsmith, a BDIC major writing his senior thesis on wind power, also has renewable energy on his mind. He is forming a new RSO, dubbed the Energy Club for now, devoted to tangible projects that will bring alternative energy solutions to the UMass campus.
Many students feel powerless in the ongoing controversy over global warming, or doubt their ability to affect the issue on an individual level. But the message from those on the front lines of the fight for change is clear: we can and will make a difference, if we just put in the effort.
"Everybody can be involved in helping fight global warming," said Colleen Borgendale of MassPIRG. "You don't have to be committed to an organization, but just making simple changes in your own life, to make a difference."
These changes include switching off the lights when you leave the room, shutting down your computer when you're not using it, unplugging cell phone and iPod chargers (which continue to drain energy even when not being used), using compact fluorescent lights instead of incandescent bulbs, walking, carpooling, or taking the bus. Electronics that work with a remote are also power suckers, and a lot of energy can be saved by plugging these devices into power strips that can be switched off at will.
MassPIRG runs a Dorm Energy Challenge in select residence halls every semester, in which dorms compete for the lowest energy usage in a given month. Residents are encouraged to cut down on personal energy waste using some of the strategies given above.
"Another area that students can have a big impact on is trash," said Stoffell. "Students just don't recycle enough, and if they did, not only would we be saving tons of space in landfills, but we'd be putting all that stuff back into circulation. Recycling cuts down on carbon emissions, the use of petroleum-based products to produce plastics, and it goes on and on."
For students who do feel motivated to take it a step further, there is no shortage of groups to get involved with.
"The people who are in power right now aren't doing enough," said Stoffell. "But as students of the university, we have a power that no one else on campus has, and that's because we pay to be here. We get to be the squeaky wheel, stand up and say we need to do something about this."
Jackie Hai can be reached at jhai@student.umass.edu.
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