Greening the college campus

It's been a busy summer, and imagine my chagrin when I realized just how much time had flown by since my last blog posting! I was in summer school at Harvard University, studying Energy and Environmental Politics as part of a Master's program in Environmental Management. Fascinating topic - and so transfixing that my blog was sadly neglected!

Spending time at Harvard, however, has raised a multitude of new topics, not least of all being college sustainability initiatives. I knew Harvard was a world-renowned learning institution, but until recently I wasn't aware just how aggressive and forward-thinking the university's sustainability initiatives are. From comprehensive recycling programs and local sourcing of dining hall food, to green building practices and reliance on renewable energy, Harvard is at the forefront of environmental sustainability.

But don't take my word for it - check out the Sustainable Endowments Institute's (http://www.endowmentinstitute.org/sustainability/ ) 2008 Report Card, which gave Harvard an overall A- rating for its efforts. And if you're in the process of selecting a school for your undergraduate or graduate education, check out the report as part of your decision-making process. Our buying decisions should reflect our environmental conservation ideals, and where you attend school is one of the biggest purchasing decisions you can make.

A gift for the person who has everything...and wants to share

There are endless gift ideas for 'the person who has everything', which inevitably manifest themselves in internet and magazine ads around the major gift-giving seasons. These are usually along the lines of ridiculously frivolous items - monogrammed key fobs and the like - the idea being to notch up the frivolity for those who are already maxed out on luxury items.

Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/) has come up with a concept for those-who-have-it-all and want to give back to those who need a helping hand. With the motto "loans that change lives", Kiva enables individuals to make micro-loans (as small as $25) to entrepreneurs in developing countries who are working to raise themselves out of poverty. As the entrepreneur achieves profitability, he/she pays back the loan, enabling the 'investor' to make another loan. As a gift idea, this couldn't be easier, since Kiva allows gift-givers to purchase on-line gift certificates for micro-loans, send the certificate to a recipient and let them choose a loan 'borrower'. Perfect for last-minute gifts and, of course, for those who have no need for more stuff in their lives.

Kiva represents a trend that I hope will expand in our American mentality, where many of us have so much that we can share with those who have very little. Twenty-five dollars may not seem like a lot, but to a grocery vendor in Rwanda, it can make all the difference in the world.

Now the primary race is getting exciting...

There's something incredibly exciting happening in the presidential primary right now (aside from the precedent-breaking candidates vying for the Democratic nomination). For the first time since I've been old enough to vote, the Republican and Democratic candidates are trying to out-do each other on the issue of environmental awareness, most specifically global warming.


Typically environmental protection (real environmental protection, that is, not the James Watt variety) has been the bastion of Democrats, with Republican political candidates largely championing the position of protecting corporations from environmental restriction or legislation. Not that Democrats have necessarily done an outstanding job of protecting this country's natural resources, but for the most part they've been the only environmentally-minded game in town.


John McCain has changed that equation in this year's primary by not only promising to address global warming and climate change if elected president, but also to enact mandatory CO2 reductions. If you read the fine print, of course, McCain's global warming mitigation plan is far weaker than either Hillary Clinton's or Barack Obama's (and far less aggressive than that advocated by the scientific and environmentalist community). But the point is that he has a plan, and that's a huge step forward for this country.

Without giving away my political leanings, I still have far more confidence in the Democratic party's commitment to environmental protection, but it gives me enormous hope to know that if McCain takes over the presidency, the cause won't be entirely abandoned. And to this tree-hugger, that's pretty exciting.

Time for a carbon tax?

At the Rappaport Institute's recent Green Cities event in Boston ( http://www.hks.harvard.edu/rappaport/events/greencities.htm ), the presenters were notable not only for their comprehensive approach to "greening" our cities and urban areas, but also for their advocacy of a carbon tax - in contrast to the more traditional 'cap and trade' approach to carbon emissions - to help mitigate global warming.

The carbon tax rationale is that putting a dollar cost on consumers' CO2 emissions is the most effective way to curb fossil fuel consumption (and reduce global warming emissions). And it's pretty simple: if you choose to purchase an energy-inefficient and/or highly polluting vehicle, for example, then you pay for your choice. It's essentially a version of consumption tax, where you pay for your choices as a consumer - it's your prerogative to make high-emitting choices that will cost you more, or lower-emitting and cost-effective choices. For Americans who tend to balk at any mention of a tax increase, that's a key factor, because the choice to increase your tax burden is entirely yours. In addition, most carbon tax plans include tax credits for consumers who choose lower-emissions-producing goods. And as tax time approaches, that sounds like welcome news to all of us.


For an explanation and discussion of the merits of carbon taxing vs. cap-and-trade, visit http://www.carbontax.org/

Getting fired up about renewable energy

Last week I had the good fortune of hearing Bracken Hendricks, co-author of Apollo's Fire, read from his book and talk about the promise of clean energy as a solution to global warming - and to revving up our sagging U.S. economy. At a time when much of the discussion about global warming and climate change involves hand-wringing and doom-and-gloom, Hendricks' message that developing renewable energy solutions will not only help mitigate global warming, but also provide an enormous boost to creating new U.S. jobs and industry, is incredibly refreshing.

The title of Hendricks' (and co-author Jay Inslee's) book draws on the inspiration of President J.F.K.'s Project Apollo effort to reach the moon. Hendricks asserts that we have the technology and the talent to achieve a 'new economy' around sustainable energy (and economic) development, and require only the desire and political will to act on our potential. And as Hendricks points out, we can't afford not to act, with the devastating effects of global warming already in evidence, and with a receding U.S. economy sorely in need of new jobs that can't easily be outsourced to the other side of the globe. As Hendricks frames the argument, a clean-tech, green-color-jobs economy is our most obvious path to an environmentally healthy and promising future.

You can learn more about Apollo's Fire and the authors at http://www.apollosfire.net/. Check it out, read the book and get inspired by the clean energy future.

And while you're at it, learn about the groups who helped sponsored Hendricks' reading at MIT. The Green Roundtable http://www.greenroundtable.org/, Ceres http://www.ceres.org/, Boston Climate Action Network http://massclimateaction.net/index.php?page=boston , the Environmental Leadership Program http://www.elpnet.org/index.php and the Union of Concerned Scientists http://www.ucsusa.org/ will get you excited about the future of clean energy!

Saving the rainforest at home

Saving the Amazon rainforest is a popular rallying cry for environmentalists, and a cause that's gained wide appeal thanks to the efforts of pop stars, politicians and environmental conservation organizations. In terms of preserving precious ecosystems and mitigating global warming, it's incredibly crucial to stop the devastation of rainforests that harbor untold numbers of species and absorb a significant portion of the world's carbon dioxide.

The missing cry in the fight to save the Amazon rainforest is the lack of recognition - at least among many environmental groups - that while U.S. citizens shake their finger at Brazil and neighboring countries for failing to enforce environmental restrictions and preserve their precious natural resources, we're guilty of the same widespread rainforest devastation in our own country.

In the temperate rainforests of California and the Pacific Northwest, logging companies have for decades raped the land with impunity, leading to massive soil erosion (and frequent landslides), rivers choked in silt and the loss of crucial habitat for endangered species. Clearcutting - the same technique used by soybean farmers in the Brazilian rainforest - continues on a massive scale in this country, without any restriction other than a prohibition of clearcutting on federal lands. Weyerhauser and other logging companies argue for clearcutting as a 'sound' forestry practice, which sounds suspiciously like the Brazilian corporate farmer's justification for leveling thousands of acres of pristine rainforest.

I've watched the devastation practiced in the rainforests of this country for far too long. It's high time we started practicing what we preach (to countries outside our borders) and protect our own precious rainforests. For information about clearcutting, visit http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/fcut.asp, as well as http://www.snowwowl.com/rltreesclearcutting.html for photos of the devastating results.