It’s not easy being green, but it beats getting fried.
That’s the message members of Climate Action, a student group of environmental activists, hope to send to Oberlin’s trustees as they meet here this weekend.
Students formed Climate Action last year, concerned by events such as President Bush’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol. They have decided that the best way they can make a difference for the environment is to work locally, lobbying the College to become more environmentally friendly.
“By starting locally, we are influencing the bigger picture,” senior Claire Jahns said. “If we can change one institution, then that trains us to work on more powerful institutions,” she added.
Climate Action “advocates for a policy of carbon neutrality for the College,” junior Michael Murray said. “That means net zero carbon dioxide emissions.”
About a year ago, the Rocky Mountain Institute, a foundation that promotes “the efficient and restorative use of resources” completed a study of how the College could become climatically neutral by 2020. Although the College commissioned and funded the report, it has yet to respond to its conclusions, let alone act on its recommendations. (The report is available on reserve in the Science Library.)
“Things are moving very slowly,” Murray said. “We don’t have advocates in the administration. There’s no one willing to integrate this into a priority for the school on a day-to-day basis.”
Jahns believes that the 2020 report has fostered a false impression that Oberlin is doing more to protect the environment than it really is.
“For some reason there’s this belief that [the report] exists, so it must be happening,” Jahns said.
She added that people think that Climate Action wants Oberlin to change its environmental policy, when in fact the College does not even have one to begin with.
“We’d like the College to have an environmental policy, that we can change,” she said.
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies John Petersen believes that Oberlin gets more credit than it deserves for protecting the environment.
“As far as [environmental] education goes, we are in front of the pack,” he said. “In terms of policy, we’re not. We’ve got a green building [the Lewis Center for Environmental Studies] that’s received a lot of attention, but not much beyond that.”
Jahns said that other schools, such as Tufts and Cornell, have already committed to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gasses.
Oberlin will likely find it difficult to match these other schools, due to the budget crunch.
“When the College was awash in cash, it didn’t do anything,” senior Tom Simchak said. “Now with the cash flow problem, it’s less attractive [to the administration].”
Students may be willing to fork over the dough, however. Climate Action recently surveyed Oberlin students on their attitudes about the environment and Oberlin. Two-thirds of the respondents were willing to add $25 to their student fees in the name of making Oberlin carbon neutral.
Moreover, Murray suggested that by conserving energy, environmentally friendly policies could save the College money in the long run.
“Given the budget situation of the college right now, there’s an opportunity to save money,” he said.
If the predictions of many scientists prove accurate, there might also be an opportunity to save lives.
“The notion of climate change is abstract, but the things that are happening around the world are not,” Jahns said, citing studies predicting that the average global temperature will rise between four and 10 degrees by 2100.
“The last ice age was something like seven degrees colder than now,” she said. “This could be a change on the order of an ice age.”
Murray said that Oberlin’s environmental record contradicts its progressive history.
“There’s Oberlin’s position as a leader — the first to accept women, the first to give degrees to blacks,” he said. “As an institution we’ve really fallen behind, and we think the administration should step up to the issue.”
“If we can’t do this at Oberlin, where can it be done?” Jahns said.