An exciting day

Yesterday, I saw a plenary session given by David Orr, and the students saw the President of the United States! What a day. Later on, we all saw a plenary talk by Sandra Steingraber, the author of Living Downstream, a great book and soon to be a movie. A few of us had a chance to talk science with her about hydraulic fracturing for natural gas extraction, a massive environmental problem... Check out the link for the book/movie!

Student Presentations at AASHE

Ben and I giving presentations on the S.O.S. and our structure and how it has improved since the days of the EEC has been great. We have been getting some great feedback regarding our structure and people seem to be inspired by the amount of direction that is given to the students in the process. It certainly helps that we have an administration that helps facilitate the projects we want to do, and for that, I am grateful. While we have the right structure in place, executing the ideas we have been gaining from this conference will be crucial to finally making UWEC Sustainable.

Another AASHE 2011 Update

More great ideas and conversations today.  Consider this one for a moment:“I agree with my colleague and friend Tony Cortese that this is arguably the greatest civilizational, moral and intellectual challenge that humanity – and therefore higher education – has ever faced.”

 

Dr Tim White, Chancellor of UC Riverside; Monday, October 10, 2011

A fantastic keynote address by Majora Carter

We heard Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx. Its central tenet is that people shouldn't have to move out of their neighborhoods to live in a better one. She gave a stunningly inspirational keynote address which expounded on themes of nature, dignity, environmental and social justice and healing of society AND the planet. Check out this quote: “If power plants, waste handling, chemical plants and transport systems were located in wealthy areas as quickly and easily as in poor areas, we would have had a clean, green economy decades ago."

AASHE update - Bill McKibben!

In our first day at the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education we got to see Bill McKibben talk. BILL MCKIBBEN! Yes, author of “The End of Nature”, “Eaarth” - check out these great books on climate change. Awesome. Check out this quote from his talk today: "It is the most important fight that any group of humans have engaged in. Ever." He came specifically to meet with the student summit on Sunday, before the full conference begins that evening.

And he invited us to join together to demonstrate when President Obama arrives on Tuesday. It’s hugely important that the Keystone XL pipeline from the Alberta Tar Sands not be built. James Hansen of NASA estimates that the Alberta Tar Sands are the second largest repository of carbon on the planet (after Saudi Arabia). If we were to burn all reserves there, we would increase the global CO2 level from 390 to 560 ppm. With just this one project.

Campus Sustainability Network ratified

Exciting news: the Campus Master Plan committee has ratified the proposed model for the Campus Sustainability Network. This will consist of three bodies, the Sustainability Attainment Planning Committee (SAPC), the Campus Sustainability Staff Council (CSSC), and various Sustainability Working Groups (SWGs). Enough alphabet soup, anyone? The compelling advance here is that the output of the SWGs will become satellite documents to the Campus Master Plan, lending it more fine details, and becoming the means through which its vision is attained. Watch for more news on this topic...