I wish every day could be like Earth Day
The environmental challenges since the first Earth Day in 1970 have shifted, waxed and waned, but always remained on the cusp of mainstream support, never quiet rallying a nation to the kind of mobilization we saw during WWII.
This year marks a moment when journalists and bloggers, scientists and religious leaders, politicians and civilians all begin raising their voices for sweeping reform. I have realistic optimism that the green revolution is coming.
At Ithaca College, Michael Smith took his Environmental History class to the History Center to present their projects from the class. The Park Sustainability Club held a film screening photo exhibit. The sustainability interns for Dining Services Sofia Johnson and Stephanie Piech were giving away 200 reusable bags and exchanging incandescent light bulbs for CFLs at “Late Night” at Towers Dining Hall.
Lastly, IC Feminists worked with ICES to put on the Red Tent event, which “is a celebration of menstruation and a showcase of alternative products.” President of ICES Nate Bates said the Diva Cups were popular along with herbal teas focusing on women’s health and cycles. Well done again Ithaca College for presenting a strong showing on Earth Day, and for holding events all week. If this keeps up, maybe Earth Week will become Earth Month and Earth Year. Or as Grist says, everyday should be Earth Day, so “screw” this.
The national news stretches from amazing movements and progress to the steady drumming from scientists that the apocalypse is coming faster than expected. And worst than expected.
The Terrifying: Joe Romm, from Climate Progress, links to a MSN story which says our planet is already experiencing the early symptoms of climate change.
The Stupid: Of course the MSM and corporations are pandering to the ‘light green’ crowds today. Set your greenwash cycle to extra bullsh*t.
The Politically Invigorating: Andy Revkin reports on political rival (John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts and James M. Inhofe (R) of Oklahoma) who introduced legislation in the senate together to clean up dangerous pollutants on Earth Day.
The Grassroots Scene: The youth oriented “It’s Getting Hot In Here” reported on civil disobedience in Charolette, NC where 300 activists were arrested for trying to peacefully block the building of a new coal power plant.
The Silly: Huffington Post produced their own video (which is news in itself) from TV clips (oops, nevermind) of the funniest Earth Day jokes from Colbert to Leno.
Editorial side: I only wish we had seen some hardcore climate change teach-ins, protests, letter writing campaigns or any kind of political activism at Ithaca College during Earth Week. Education is great, but we don’t have time to turn everyone into climate change advocates.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead.
Powershift gave this college all the tools we needed to become a leader in real change in Washington, or on our campus. I hope to see more politically motivated campaigns in the future.
Get on the Bus, Gus: Next SGA Pres. Challenges College
Future SGA President Jeff Goodwin spoke in Emerson Suites April 16 about campus shuttle system.
It’s about time IC has seriously looked at a shuttle system, but I never thought it would be this well done. Jeff Goodwin, a friend of mine and future SGA president for ‘09-’10, has spent his semester coming up with a comprehensive, “holistic” plan to bring a closed-circuit shuttle system to South Hill.
The shuttle system would run all day with more buses running during the early morning to compensate for the peak hours, and few buses would run during the day as students slowly left campus. The loop would start in the Circle Apartments, navigate down through campus then down Coddington Road and Hudson to loop back up 96B to the main entrance of campus and back to Circles to complete the loop. Goodwin said there are about as many students living off-campus on South Hill as there are living in the Circles.
The whole system would reach about 1,000 students, and it would be a 7 1/2 minute ride time. Each planned pickup/drop-off point is within a two to five minute walk of most students. Goodwin says the buses, which will likely be similar to the nostalgic yellow school bus, can carry 648 passengers per hour.
I could go on forever about the numbers. You can see there is some fantastic research in this system. You can view the full Keynote (or PowerPoint, for you Mac illiterate) below.
But to flash one last amazing fact, Goodwin says this system, which would hire two full time staff, six part-time student staff, three buses (at $55,000 each) would cost nothing for the college based on savings alone. The upfront costs, according to Goodwin, is around $210,000 ($252,000 per year) while the savings would be around $275,411.
“Seriously? What are we saving?” you might ask.
“What do we cut to make this happen?” Goodwin said. “And, the real beauty of this is, we don’t have to.”
Eliminating the future spaces in the A&E lot, maintenance fees on parking lots (such as repaving, plowing, painting lines etc.), and end the $22,000 lease of Y lot across from main entrance all contribute to the potential savings of having a shuttle system.
It’s obvious, but the environmental impact of a shuttle system on the college’s carbon footprint would reduce our carbon from transportation by more than half. Goodwin said we’ve signed the documents, such as the ACUPCC, and it’s “time to put our money where our mouth is.”
Check out Jeff’s full PowerPoint Presentation here!
It was a fantastic presentation, packed with information that impressed President Tom Rochon, who said, “All I can say is we’ll take a very close look at this” and gave Goodwin a thumbs-up after the presentation. Goodwin, just elected as SGA president, plans to make this a priority during his tenure, especially after he saw so much student support.
“This is something that I’ve been wanting since I got here.” Goodwin said. “I’m realistic in that I understand that I won’t be here if this ever happens, but if I can lay the foundation down, I’ll be satisfied”
The event happened at Academic Symposium today; Goodwin presented “Establishing a Campus Shuttle System at Ithaca College.” About 80 to 85 students, faculty and many administrators were in attendance, including President Tom Rochon, VP of Student Affairs/Campus Life Brian McAree, Associate Vice President Rory Rothman and Shelley Semmler, VP of institutional advancement.
Now we’re cookin’ with…sun
Steve Reeves (center) shows the power of the sun to Krista Fieselmann ‘10 (right) and Kim LaReau ‘10 (left)
For a few hours on Tuesday afternoon, Shawn Reeves made nachos, hot water for tea and was thinking of heating up some couscous; all with the power of sun. In only an hour, even on the partly cloudy day, his soda can of water increased from 60 to 80 degrees Celsius, and was still warming. In his spare time, he built a solar cooker out of aluminum foil, glue and a cardboard box.
Reeves is a part of a non-profit charity, or 501(c)3, which has just moved to Ithaca recently, called EnergyTeachers.org. Reeves, a high school physics teacher from Newton, Mass., is doing some outreach and advocacy on campus for his organization. In 2004, when the energy crisis was making headlines, he founded Energy Teachers as a way to share lesson plans and develop curriculum focused on energy. Now he travels all over giving lectures and helping teachers develop classes on energy. For instance, he told me, he just talked with one science teacher who had a bike that could generate electricity, but he didn’t now how to use it in the classroom. Energy Teachers helped develop a lesson on the difference in power to illuminate a incandescent light bulb verse a compact florescent.
On the stone wall on the back patio of the Center for Natural Sciences by the greenhouse (irony), Reeves set up a few solar cookers and some science equipment: a light meter, and a heat and light reader which he can plug into his computer and graph the days data. While I stood talking and taking pictures, students and professors stopped by to talk and learn about the power of the sun.
Reeves boasted to students about the time he cooked a pot of steamed yams in the middle of January. He said it doesn’t matter how cold it is with a solar cooker, only how cloudy it is. He uses a sealed jar to insulate his food, and protect it from the cold wind. His ’solar oven’ looks like a satellite dish, and concentrates the suns rays onto his food from multiple points.
For him, solar cooking is a relaxing pastime. He’s not trying to tell everyone should use solar cooking, or even to replace solar cooking as a means to reduce one’s carbon footprint. In fact the amount of energy a typical house hold uses to cook food is a small fraction compared to space heating, cooling and water heating. To him, solar cooking is just a cool pastime, and he hopes a few more people will take an interest.
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