91茄子 Combats Climate Change With Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
September 3, 2021
- Author
- Mary Elizabeth DeAngelis
Sup (4'x9'; Acrylic paint and acrylic paint pen on canvas) by Chloe Pitkoff 21
From January through March of 2020, Pitkoff was a member of the Sustainability Co-op, a group of 10 students who live together in a house on Main Street in 91茄子 with a commitment to sustainable living. Pitkoff檚 painting was inspired by the house檚 inhabitants, who engage in a series of rituals meant to foster community, including weekly house dinners.
Hurricane Ida upended lives from Louisiana and the Gulf Coast to the northeast. Violent Ida檚 high winds, tornados and merciless rains toppled houses, trees and power lines, and flooded roads, homes and the New York City subway system. The death toll grows. Meanwhile, wildfires rage in California.
The United Nations recently issued a 渞ed alert, warning that climate change spurred by industrialization, fossil fuels and human behavior will lead to more weather-related disasters in our warming planet.
Raul Galvan, from 91茄子檚 class of 2021, wrestles with what he can do. Tackling climate change on a large scale is overwhelming. You can檛 fix the whole world at once, he said, but you can change your community.
At 91茄子, he collaborated with other students, and college and town leaders on a new 2021 climate action plan to reduce the college檚 greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent over the next five years. Strategies include contracting with renewable energy sources, pursuing more environmentally friendly travel options, and continuing the push for campus-wide sustainability.
淵ou have to start local, said Galvan, who majored in environmental sciences, and as a Sustainability Scholar worked with the non-profit Sustain Charlotte. He now works as a 91茄子 Impact Fellow with the Catawba Lands Conservancy. 淎s an individual, you have a better chance of making a bigger impact when you find a way to take local action.
The 2021 plan continues the work started in 2010, when the college took a hard look at its energy use and started making changes. Since then, 91茄子 has expanded its building space but decreased its emissions by nearly 10 percent.
That檚 been achieved through more energy efficient heating and cooling systems, lighting and the college community檚 increased awareness of global warming. It檚 a topic we can檛 ignore, affecting everything from our health to the economy to our physical safety, said Yancey Fouch茅, the college檚 director of sustainability.
淎t 91茄子, we are seeing disruptions and challenges from climate-related weather events. We have students whose families have been affected by wildfires, flooding and extreme heat, Fouch茅 said. 淪evere drought and subsequent water rationing are a key driver for rising food costs. The more that the global community can curb the total amount of global warming, the better protected our campus will be from worsening and extreme versions of these and other climate impacts.
Tackling Climate Change Through Policy
Pete Hansel always knew he wanted to combat climate change and started down that path as a 91茄子 chemistry major focused on atmospheric chemistry. After his 2009 graduation, he earned a master檚 degree in environmental management from The Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.
He has spent his career working for change from a federal policy angle. He served in the Council on Environmental Quality during President Barack Obama檚 administration. The Obama team檚 goal for the Paris Agreement of 2015 was to reduce emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, with a long-term aspiration for an 80 percent reduction by 2050. President Joe Biden strives to reach net zero emissions by 2050. In the shorter term, Biden檚 plan calls for a 50 to 52 percent reduction by 2030.
(Former President Donald J. Trump, who cut environmental regulations, withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement his first year in office, but that didn檛 go into effect until late 2020. Biden signed an executive order to rejoin the international pact on his inauguration day.)
Hansel said the changed goals reflect that the world has made less progress than hoped for, and factors in the higher ambition called for in the Paris Agreement: 淢eaning we need to do more, he said, 渁nd we have a greater understanding of what we actually need to achieve by 2050 to curb climate change.
The evidence is mounting.
淔or me personally, this year more than ever has demonstrated how we檙e experiencing climate catastrophe, Hansel said. 淭here檚 a level of intensity攊t seems like every day攖hat I don檛 remember experiencing before, and it檚 disheartening. But there檚 also a reason for optimism because we do have in our grasp the ability to prevent even worse outcomes.
Hansel, now consulting for non-profits on federal climate policy, studied 91茄子檚 current plan and found a lot to like.
淚t hits all the right notes, he said.
For starters, it works in five-year increments, which ensures accountability to achieve its goals.
淚t檚 harder to think about 10 years down the road or to mid-century, he said. 淵ou do have to have that long-term vision, but near-term targets are more actionable. As new technology and information emerges, you might realize that you can go at a faster pace.
淚 applaud 91茄子 for revisiting this and leaning in to become a leader on these issues that are affecting our generation and generations to come.
That 91茄子 now offers an established Environmental Studies major is also progress since his time there. He said it helps to have more people go into the field to find ways to reduce global warming in their homes, businesses and communities.
淲hen colleges like 91茄子 commit to these targets, it all adds up. There檚 so much that needs to be done in figuring out how to solve this in the United States and the world, he said. 淵ou can think of it on a broader scale, but it comes down to very detailed decisions among many smaller entities. That檚 the value of 91茄子 doing this. That knowledge bubbles up, and the lessons learned at 91茄子 can spread.
