Earthlust is currently planning events for a week of awareness and activities leading up to the
October 24, 2009 Day of Action for 350.org!
Bill McKibben founded 350.org to raise awareness for climate issues. Our earth currently has about 390 parts per million atmospheric carbon, but many scientists (including NASA’s James Hansen) think that we need to be at a maximum of 350 ppm by the end of the century to prevent catastrophic changes due to global warming.
The 350.org Day of Action will send a message to world leaders before the United Nations climate talks (taking place in Copenhagen this December) saying that we need strong action and targets supported by science. Here at Swarthmore, October 24 also provides an opportunity to educate the college community about climate change and how we, as individuals, can reduce our daily impact on the Earth.
To learn more, check out the 350.org website!
To get involved in Swarthmore’s Day of Action plans, join us at Earthlust meetings and watch for updates about activities leading up to October 24!
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Swarthmore Earthlust is planning to send a group of students to:
Power Shift Pennsylvania
From the Power Shift PA website:
“A statewide youth-focused summit that includes speakers, workshops, panels and training sessions to engage Pennsylvania citizens in the state’s clean energy and green job revolution. October 24, 2009 at State College (Penn State University campus)”
Be on the lookout for informational meetings about attending Power Shift PA. Any student interested in environmentalism can attend, not just Earthlust members!
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Currently, we are focusing on a comprehensive plan or system for sustainability at Swarthmore.
- We strongly recommend the creation of a Sustainability Director administrative position immediately.
Last semester we campaigned for 100% wind power credit purchases.
If you look at the history of Swarthmore’s renewable energy purchases, we have in fact been purchasing renewable energy gradually over the past few years. In the early 2000’s, we purchased the equivalent of 5% of our energy from wind power but since that was a contract for a specific amount of kilowatts, that number later went down to about 3%. We stayed at that number until 2004, when Earthlust ran a campaign in which we raised money from students and alums to get our renewable energy purchases up to 8.5%. Two years after that, Earthlust ran another campaign to get the percentage up to 35%. We were successful enough at inspiring the student body and the administration that the final contract ended up being for the then equivalent of 40% of our consumed kilowatts. Because we’ve done a better job with energy conservation (due to our awesome Facilities staff and students turning off lights and engaging in better conservation measures) we’re currently offsetting about 42% of our kilowatts with wind power. That extra 2% due to sustainability efforts is really great. We should all be proud of that. But, at the same time, we can, and should, be doing a lot more. We’re always going to be using some electricity, no matter how much we try and conserve and we need to deal with that reality. Right now, wind credits, since we have no local wind or solar farms to buy from, are the best bet. And our purchase, in addition to putting less carbon into the atmosphere, will support the renewable energy market, especially in the current economic climate when investment in renewable energy technologies is way down, thereby making an important impact in terms of leadership as well as ethical responsibility.
The purchase will cost money. Earthlust has looked at the economics of the situation in depth. It will be approximately an additional $88,000 thousand dollars per year to purchase the wind credits. However, this has to be looked at in scale. Our current electricity budget is about 1.2 million dollars. Change is not easy or cheap, unfortunately. But we think it can have a very big and meaningful impact.
The answer isn’t just wind power. Purchasing renewable energy credits shouldn’t be the end of Swarthmore’s sustainability measures by any means (and it certainly hasn’t been after previous purchases. in fact, it’s been the exact opposite). Both long and short term ways to get us off the grid or reduce our energy consumption, like solar panels on dorms and energy efficiency, should definitely be a significant part of future plans. But since a lot of those ideas can’t happen right away, wind power is a great short term step to help us make an impact, and a statement, now.
- Elizabeth Crampton ‘09 (Earthlust All-Star)
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