Environment

American students are going to the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen Dec. 3 to 18 to advocate for strong international clean energy reforms. They will join around 90 world leaders including President Barack Obama, who said he will commit the United States to greatly cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Holly Jones, a senior from the University of Iowa, has been chosen to go to Denmark along with one youth delegate from each Midwestern state. “We are letting the world leaders know that we’re youth, and we’re here, and we’re stepping up,” said Jones, a history and geoscience major with an emp

Students at the University of Pennsylvania can now participate in an Eco-Reps program, educating their peers in dorms about their energy consumption and sustainability practices. Similar programs already exist at colleges and universities all around the country, many as part of a Climate Action Plan they created in accordance with the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) Pledge. Every floor of Penn’s four different campus housing buildings will have one of about 30 Eco-Reps. Their responsibilities will include stewarding environmental and recycling issues,

Nearly 1000 students and youth gathered this past weekend at the University of Oregon and at Oberlin College for the Power Shift West and Ohio Power Shift conferences. Students from around Ohio and from 13 western states advocated for clean energy legislation from Congress and learned about sustainable living. The students wanted reforms passed before President Obama goes to negotiate the International Climate Treaty in Copenhagen. The events were two of 11 regional versions of last year’s massive Power Shift gathering in Washington D.C. According to the Power Shift Ohio website, “400 peopl

“Don’t Pave!” rang out across Strong Hall Lawn at the University of Kansas at Lawrence on Nov. 2, as forty student-activists and locals summoned the administration to save 20 acres of wetlands from the proposed South Lawrence Trafficway.   The trafficway would be a six-lane highway with a 12-foot sound barrier. It would cross through the 640-acre Baker Wetlands south of 31st Street.   Members of Eco Justice, KU Environs, First Nation Student Advisory Board, and the Wetlands Preservation Organization collaborated with Haskell Indian Nations University students and members of local

Campuses and communities across the nation gathered for an International Day of Climate Action Oct. 24, hoping to raise awareness and spur global decision-makers to reduce pollution. Some participated in a more specific 350 Day on Saturday, drawing attention to what scientists say is the maximum safe amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. At the University of Illinois, junior Matt Rundquist explained that the rallies informed bystanders that Earth's atmosphere stands at 390 parts per million of carbon dioxide. “It needs to be below 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide to prevent Ear

More than 100 college and high school students gathered at Power Shift Missouri ’09 to enunciate a clear message to Senator Claire McCaskill: support strong clean energy legislation. The summit at Saint Louis University, one of 11 regional summits aimed at pushing clean energy through Congress, ended with a rally Sunday in front of St. Louis City Hall. The event came together through efforts by the Student Sierra Coalition, the student chapter of Missouri PIRG (MOPIRG), student group Green Action at Washington University, One Sky, Greenpeace, and Repower America.   “We won’t be fooled b

On October 9th through 11th, more than 100 students from Indiana and 400 students in Michigan united to network, learn, and train to take action on climate change at Michigan Power Shift and Indiana Power Shift. “Some people are environment activists, some people are poverty reduction activists, some are social activists — we’re all (coming) together finding ways we can work together,” said University of Chicago graduate student Kyle Gracey this weekend in Michigan. Organizers in Michigan used artists and musical performances to energize participants, featuring posters from the well-know

On October 2nd at Iowa State University, members of a campus environmental group ActivUs asked the administration to phase out the use of its coal power plant in the next 10 years and become 50 percent sustainable in the next five years. The meeting came after a recent victory for ActivUs where the three public universities in Iowa agreed to monitor their coal ash dumping grounds. Three members of the group delivered petitions and discussed sustainability with ISU President Geoffroy, the Vice President for Business and Finance, and the executive assistant to the President. Graham Jordiso