Perspectives
WALTER SIMPSON
WALTER SIMPSON served as Energy Officer for the University at Buffalo for 26 years before retiring in 2008. He is the editor and contributing author of The Green Campus: Meeting the Challenge Environmental Sustainability.
Higher Education faces many challenges though perhaps none is as great as the challenge of global warming and climate change. This may seem like a strange statement to make given the pressing issues facing most college and university campuses these days. However, as a planet and as a species, climate change poses unique threats and has been described with no hyperbole as the most serious environmental problem we have ever faced. If higher education is to remain relevant, it must not only embrace and respond to the problem of climate change but also provide the kind of leadership that our society expects from those entrusted with advancing intellectual frontiers and educating the next generations.
When facing large problems and dangers, there is a tendency to deny the problem and hope it will go away. As a nation, we have been trying this counter-productive strategy for years though it appears now that public awareness and concern have reached a tipping point and we are ready to accept the scientific facts and begin seriously grappling with this problem. None too soon.
Our reliance on fossil fuels is at the heart of the problem of climate change. When coal, oil and natural gas are burned, the result is carbon dioxide emissions. As the atmospheric concentration of this trace gas increases, so does its heat-trapping propensity – resulting in higher temperatures. Unless we change the energy path we are now on, average global temperature could rise by as much as 8 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century – leaving an unrecognizable world to future generations. Leading climatologist Jim Hansen, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has said that we have as little as ten years to get on a new energy path or it will be impossible to avoid the worst consequences of planetary warming.
Colleges and universities can tackle the climate change problem by addressing it on a priority basis in teaching, research and public service and by making sure that campus operations are not contributing to the problem. An excellent vehicle for doing so is the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. Already 580 campus presidents have signed on, pledging that their institution will develop plans to achieve “climate neutrality” as soon as possible.
Climate neutrality means zero net reliance on fossil fuels, a tall order for any organization or facility. But it can be achieved by redoubling campus commitments to energy conservation, purchasing only electricity from green power sources and/or installing on-site generation from solar, wind, or biomass, and creating or buying carbon offsets which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions off-campus in order to cancel out remaining emissions on-campus.
Schools that are still burning coal need to switch to natural heating since coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel and therefore does the most harm when burned. All new construction should be maximally efficient and as reliant on renewable energy as possible. Climate neutrality also entails addressing carbon dioxide emissions associated with campus transportation including commuting – not an easy task.
All of these activities can and should involve all members of the campus community and be integrated into the academic curriculum to maximize the involvement of students.
The time is short and the road is steep. Colleges and universities need to step up to the plate and accept the climate challenge. What is needed most now is leadership, and that is what higher education can and must provide.