Understanding the Urgency

I am extremely interested in wind power, so when the opportunity arose to attend a local community’s forum to oppose a proposed wind farm, I didn’t have to think twice. I have attended similar events before and I  prefer to be a ‘fly on the wall’. I write lots of notes and jot down things I would like to research further based on  accusations. Prior to attending this forum, I heard news coverage of why the wind farm was being turned down, and the outdated opinions of the area shocked me. But, I didn’t realize how serious the problem was until I attended.

The first speakers were two men who lived near a recently installed wind farm in the area. They talked of horrific jet-engine and braking-train sounds that the turbines made when the wind blew hard. They also discussed the significant deforestation required to install all the turbines. They encouraged the community to do its homework and not to rush in to the wind farm, as their community had. “Do your homework and find out if it’s the right thing to do…and keep in mind that you don’t have to do it today.” That statement began a theme for the night. 

As the speakers went on, the depth of this problem seemed to deepen. A conservation biologist showed many graphs and statistics of how unhelpful wind power was in reducing our use of fossil fuels. As he was showing a bar chart of the billions of tons of green house gas emissions predicted for 2020, he pointed to a small green portion at the top of bar. This represented the reduction of emission that wind power is projected to contribute in 2020. From where I was sitting, I could clearly see that, relative to the scale of the graph, this green amount was about 1-2 billion pounds of green house gas reduction.  Only an hour into the three hour forum, I thought I was going to have to leave. I could not believe that he was claiming a 1-2 billion pound reduction was insignificant. While only a small portion of the emissions, any reduction is a good reduction, in my opinion. He also failed to pair wind power with other renewable technologies such as solar, biomass or hydro. Small impact when separated, but in combination could potentially greatly reduce emissions.

As the meeting went on, again residents of the community were encouraged to “wait” (someone suggested up to 5 years!)and that “now was not the time”.  I couldn’t understand how the community could not see that NOW is the time. The technology is here and its proved to be beneficial in more ways than one. Our emissions need to be reduced and wasteful habits must be changed. I don’t feel the urgency is understood in situations like this. I don’t have the answers, but there has to be away to motivate people to action on these issues.

I believe conservation is the most important issue. If we didn’t need the electricity, we wouldn’t have to disturb the land to put up the turbine to produce it. But, again, this issue was almost untouched. In the extra hour the forum went on, only a handful of citizens were left to hear the fifth speaker. She was the ONLY speaker who talked of conservation being important. Again, shocking.

Renewable/Alternative energy is needed. Conservation is needed. And the time is now.

Increase the Green

It seems that recently, ‘green’ or environment awareness has exploded! At the mall or in catalogs t-shirts with phrases such as ‘Love me.. I recycle’, ‘Green your footprint’ or ‘Green is the new Black’ are becoming common.  Many grocery stores offer re-usable bags and a friend of mine who works at a grocery store commented that most customers in her line bring their own bag. More ‘Whole grain’ or ‘organic’ food labels are popping up on the shelves. Even Clorox has come out with ‘Green Works’ , a line of environmentally friendly cleaning products.

Another increase I have noticed is the appreciation for Environment majors. As college students go, I’m a rare case. I’ve known what I wanted to do since junior year of high school and I’ve stuck with it. But, back in high school when I would explain what my dream future career was, most would look at me strange as to wonder why I would ever want to major in THAT. Flash-Forward to the current and my environment based major doesn’t seem so strange anymore. Now I mostly receive excitement or questions when I explain to people what my major is and what I hope to have a career in.

Although the awareness I see is commonly commercial, it is refreshing to see people my age wearing T-shirts that express the same beliefs I have. Also, to finally hear encouragement from those who are beginning to realize the environment is important is also great. The awareness is growing, lets hope it keeps spreading.

On Vs. Off Campus Student Living

Inspired by the work I do at my internship (promoting energy conservation in the residence halls) I have compiled a list comparing how you can save not only on campus but if you live off campus:

On campus students DO actually pay for their wastefulness (25% of housing bill goes to energy costs).  But there are plenty of ways to save. On top of all the suggestions on the Take Charge website (www.takecharge.psu.edu) I have a few suggestions of my own:

• At the dining halls…..Try to eat in the dining area rather than taking your food back in a plastic bag or Styrofoam container. This will reduce your trash.
• Laundry…..Students have to pay for laundry in the dorms ($1 wash, $0.75 dry). So be sure to do full loads only, this will reduce water waste AND less loads can save you money! Also, try to do your wash in cold water; it saves a ton of energy.
• Report drafty windows to your RA, asap!

Since there is already a large website page dedicated to saving on campus, I’ll focus on off campus savings, since most apartment renters see their wastefulness first hand each month in their bills. Here are some suggestions that can save a lot of money (the environment too!)

• Most Realtors require tenants to pay electric/heat bill.
• Cooking for yourself…..Buy reusable grocery bags (normally only a few dollars). This can reduce the buildup of plastic bags in the landfills and some stores even give you a discount if you bring your own bag. If you do have plastic bags around your apartment, take them to a local store to have them recycled. If you bring a lunch to campus, use reusable lunch totes and sandwich wraps (check out: www.reusablebags.com for stylish suggestions)
• Dishes…..If you do dishes by hand, shut the water off while drying a dish or when soaping up, saving small amounts of water at a time can really add up. If you’re lucky enough to have a dishwasher, be sure to do only full loads, like laundry.
• Laundry…..if you have to go to the Laundromat, just like on campus, you have to pay per load. It’s a little more expensive so again, full loads will save you. Some Laundromats offer a reduced price if you wash ‘cold only’. If you DO have a washer/dryer in your apartment, full loads will save on bills and cold water will save hot water for other things!
• Lighting…..light bulbs are always the responsibility of the tenant. Change out incandescent for fluorescent. They’re pricier, but if you split a pack of 4 for $7 between roommates it’s not so bad. Plus they can save on electric bills.
• Keep your realtor informed…..It’s their responsibility to maintain the property, so if there are leaky faucets or drafts report them ASAP. You can save them or yourself money and reduce huge wastes. Also, if they don’t use low-flow shower ($5 at Wal-Mart) and faucet heads suggest they do, or change them out yourself (be sure to keep the old and put them back when you move out!!)

Money and energy saving lifestyle changes can be pretty small. Hope this list can help some of you money strapped or environmentally conscience college students out there!

Power Point; The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

All the advances in technology have made schooling and education much more interactive and convenient; easy and speedy e-mail contacts, online classes, lectures etc. The most popular use of technology I have seen is professors that write up their lectures on power point and require students to print them out each class.

I bought notebooks for each class this semester, only to soon realize that most of my professors would rather write the notes for me in power point. Now, power point IS a great assistant to presentations, especially in front of a large group.  But, requiring students to print out the exact lectures prior to class not only reduces the chance of keeping their attention, it allows the professor to get through the lecture and material at lightning speed. But, of most concern is the waste of paper that amounts from most students being required to do this. It is said that the average American uses more than 700 pounds of paper in a year (an EPA statisic). With about 40,000 students at Penn State, most who need to print lectures daily and assuming this large usage falls under the average 700 lbs/year, this would amount in 28,000,000 pounds of paper at the Penn State campus per year!

 I’m not suggesting power point be eliminated from the classroom (I don’t know how I’d learn anything in my 500 student physics class without it!) But, I’m sure this waste could be reduced. Allow students to take their own notes and then access the power points later online to add where necessary. Another alternative could be a simple one page outline and let students add in their own notes. This would require only one page of printing as opposed to the usual 5-6 pages for a presentation.

 Next semester I’m going to wait to buy notebooks until I learn whether I actually have to take notes or not. Until then, I’m glad plenty of recycling options are available; it makes this whole situation a little easier to digest.

Finals affect on conserving

Finals week comes not just once…but twice a year. Its a time when students run on little to no sleep, little to no nutritious foods, and a lot of caffeine. I know that I am no exception. With this semester’s finals week about half over, I have already found myself lacking in life skills due to the irregularity of my studying habits. So what does this have to do with energy conservation? I’ll tell you.

In all honesty, conserving energy is mostly about paying attention to little details of your actions, deciding if they are wasteful or not and if they are, working on changing those habits. But with lack of sleep, my attention span is very short, reducing the attention I can dedicate to my actions and I know I am not alone. I started thinking about the affect of finals week and how it may increase the amount of energy wasted on campus and here are a few examples:

-Lack of sleep, loss of attention. Last night while I was brushing my teeth I became preoccupied with straightening up my bathroom not realizing that I had left the water running, which is an obvious do-not of a conserver like me. But if multiple students do the same thing I did, it could result in hundreds of gallons of wasted water!

-All Nighters. The dedicated student who pulls an all nighter uses a lot of electricity. Most likely needing a computer to do work, a room light and desk light on. With all the students who pull all nighters on this campus, that’s a lot of extra energy use.

-24 Hour everything. The library is open 24 hours. Computer labs are open 24 hours. Starbucks is open 24 hours. The buses run later. All these things are obviously great resources to students but they are huge extra energy uses.

I’m not suggesting a change of behavior from students or the university. Resources being open, staying up late and doing whatever you need to do to get the grade are totally necessary during finals week. But when I started to think about it, it was surprising how much extra we all use in just this one week.

Defrosters could be your enemy.

I jumped in my car this morning to run to the store to pick up some some things before I had to catch the bus. Since it was cold out, and as an almost habit, I turned on my front and rear defrosters as soon as I started my car. This action did not cross my mind again until a few hours later…

It would have normally not crossed my mind at all but, this morning in my 9:05 class we had a speaker presenting on sustainability. He gave us an overview of many things we could do to reduce our carbon footprint and save ourselves money. One of the money saving subjects was on improving our gas mileage. He suggested such things as being sure our tire pressure is good and not letting your car run to ‘warm up’ for more than 1 minute. These things I had known, but a surprising suggestion he had for us was NOT to turn on the defrosters as soon as you start the car since it will pull away energy from the engine and decrease gas mileage. It is better to wait until the car gets a little warmer, then turn it on (the air will be warmer anyway!)

I chose to write about this piece of advice because I felt it was surprising and probably a fact not commonly known. So, here is a simple and easy way to improve gas mileage and save yourself some money!