More Money = More Floralia

This was first published in the College Voice on February 20th, 2008

Freshmen frequently don’t appreciate just how amazing Floralia is. Warm weather, just before finals, everyone outside lolling around on the library green. Musical acts and free food throughout the day. Let’s not pretend: alcohol flowing like the Thames. And then, capping it all off is the final musical act, which is usually a somewhat big name. Last year it was OK Go!, the year before that was Reel Big Fish. You get the picture.
A lot of people complain, though, that we don’t get better headlining bands for Floralia, looking at by bigger schools with bigger budgets getting amazingly popular groups. And, while we shouldn’t ignore how awesome it is to get as well-known groups as we do, it’s true that the bigger the name, the more fun for us, and the more attention Conn gets. So, getting “better” bands is good. Hands down.
The problem is money. SAC does a pretty good job for what they’re presented with, but we simply don’t have as big a budget for such things as bigger, more well-endowed schools.
Enter Tyler Dunham and his creative wonderfulness. Turns out, saving energy saves money, too. And when we use less electricity, the school has more money. Tyler worked out a program with the administration called “Concert from Conservation”, whereby a portion of the money saved by energy conservation goes into the SAC budget for Floralia. Last year it was 25% of the amount we saved compared to the average usage for the last five years. This year, the more we save, the higher percentage SAC gets. So, you want the best band for Floralia that we can get? Start saving energy.
Sometimes it’s hard to remember what you can do to use less electricity, even though you hear them all the time. But there’s a few really basic things you can do:
1.Turn off lights in unoccupied spaces – that means when you leave your room.
2.Turn off appliances and electronics when they’re not being used.
3.Be smart about temperature control – use your heater or the window, not both together.
4.Don’t leave your chargers or TV plugged in all the time, except to power strips that you turn off when you’re not using them. They use a lot of energy just by being plugged in.
5.Use Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) instead of the normal incandescents. Besides using much less energy, they last a lot longer.
So there you have it. Saving energy equals more money. More money equals more and better Floralia. It’s as simple as that. Let’s do this!

The Whole World in Our Hands

This was first published in the College Voice on February 13th, 2008

It’s important to look at problems as holistically as you can. Take the problem of creating mandatory international greenhouse gas regulations. The primary bastions of resistance to mandatory carbon caps (and incidentally also the two biggest greenhouse gas emitters), China and the United States, are in stalemate, neither desiring to commit to such restrictions until the other does.
As Prof. Frasure pointed out in the Focus the Nation panel on this topic on January 31st, there are good reasons for both sides’ resistance. Millions of people in China still live in abject poverty, and their recent explosion of development, powered by large amounts of dirty coal, is expected to trickle higher living conditions down to much of the population. Calls from the West to constrict their emissions sound to Chinese leaders as if we either don’t care about or aren’t considering their need to industrialize, or even worse, don’t want them to industrialize at all.
On the side of our own country, it’s not as simple as acting on a moral imperative, nor is it as simple as passing off the initiating of change to the Market, waiting until our political leaders feel like doing something. Yes, we have a moral imperative to do everything we can to address climate change. Yes, we also have a moral imperative to make sure that our economy does not suffer as a result. The situation isn’t purely one way or the other.
There are a few important things to think about, however. First, prominent corporate consulting firms have concluded that the US can make huge reductions in greenhouse gas emissions at small cost to the economy1. Perhaps even more persuasive are studies indicating that the cost to the economy will only increase the longer we wait before imposing restrictions2.
Prof. Frasure argued that these things may all be true, but the reality is that Congress will not vote to support any international agreement that does not include China. He knows what he’s talking about; this is likely the case. But that’s a problem that many refer to as lack of political will, and as Al Gore is so fond of saying, that is a renewable resource.
But getting politicians to act morally can be a difficult and grueling process, so what do we do while we’re waiting for our efforts to convince them? Well, it’s important that China subscribe to any climate agreement as well, as we know. But how can we help China continue its development while at the same time steering away from dirty fuel? Developing nations frequently argue that advocating for their use of renewable energy ignores the fact that all these technologies are patented in Europe and the US! So then, if we really want a global solution to this global problem, we not only have to ramp up our domestic pressure on political leaders, but also push for some technology transfer program. Only by dispensing with tunnel vision and seeing all facets of our problems can we come to a good solution.

Focus the Nation

This was first published in the College Voice on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

Focus the Nation is this Thursday! In case you haven’t heard yet, it’s a national day of discussion about climate change solutions happening at approximately 1500 colleges and universities around the country. It’s really going to be a wonderful event, and all the events are free. Here’s what the schedule looks like:

Wednesday at 7:45 we’re screening the live webcast “The 2% Solution” in Bill 106. It’s called that because in order to achieve the “80% by 2050” targets for reducing carbon emissions, we need to make approximately 2% reductions each year. Anyways, the webcast’s going to be AMAZING, with a bunch of really cool climate experts (including Van Jones, who’s amazing), and then Edward Norton. There will even be text-message voting. That’s about all I know. It’s going to be really cool.

The main bulk of our events are during the day on Thursday. In each of the five standard class blocks from 9am-4pm there will be a panel discussion with faculty and some outside speakers. The topics and panelists are on the Focus the Nation facebook event, but essentially (and in order) they are: Sustainable Cities, Sustainable Food, Climate Effects on Nature, Green Building, and China & India. There are great panelists, and dedicated student moderators, as well. Come, learn some really interesting stuff, and support your classmates!

The final segment of the event is a talk co-sponsored by the Education department and the Goodwin-Niering Center, and it’s happening at 7pm Thursday night. The speaker is Dr. Greg Cajete, Director of the Native American Studies program at the University of New Mexico. He’ll be speaking on ecological education from an indigenous perspective. This event is somewhere in Blaustein, probably Ernst Common Room.

And this is just what we’ve got pinned down so far. There are a number of other initiatives that are part of the national event which we haven’t worked on for here, involving a project called Choose Your Future, where you can vote which solutions you think are best for solving the climate crisis. The results of that will be used to attempt an influence on the political discussion of environmental issues.

Finally, remember to vote in your state’s primary if you still can (that is, if you’re registered and all), or to send in your absentee ballot, whatever you’re doing. This is a crucial presidential election, and the primary’s a very big deal, in which the course of both parties’ future will be influenced one way or another. Get active! Make your voice heard! Shuffle off the apathetic coil! Our generation is really awesome, and by dropping our apathy and influencing this election we can really gain a lot of respect from our parents’ generation.

More information about Focus the Nation can be found at http://www.focusthenation.org, and this and all other environmental news from Conn is online at http://conncollgreen.wordpress.com.