2010 Diary week 40
Climate Change Education
Book Review
These are some snippets from the review of Degrees That Matter: Climate Change and the University by Ann Rappaport and Sarah Hammond Creighton: “Global warming poses a threat to every institution in society, including colleges, universities, and their host communities. How we address the issue will determine how we are judged by future generations.” “Colleges and universities through their teaching, scholarship, and practices can make a difference.” “Our institutions must motivate students to become active, engaged, and effective citizens in the communities they will inhabit and in the entire social fabric that makes a democracy work and makes a society possible.” “Colleges and universities also have an opportunity to lead by example, by taking action to reduce our own contributions to global warming. Implementing decisions requires the innovation, practical knowledge, and hard work of our institutions’ best minds, be they faculty, staff, or students.” “At Tufts University, we are educating our students to become active, engaged, effective citizens across diverse disciplines.” “Climate change is the only thing that has the power to fundamentally end the march of civilization as we know it and make lots of other efforts that we’re making irrelevant and impossible.”
DEGREES THAT MATTER
CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE UNIVERSITY
ANN RAPPAPORT AND SARAH HAMMOND CREIGHTON
THE MIT PRESS 2007
Foreword by Lawrence S. Bacow, President, Tufts University
Climate change poses a threat to every institution in society
Global warming poses a threat to every institution in society, including colleges, universities, and their host communities. How we address the issue will determine how we are judged by future generations.
Educational institutions can make a difference
Colleges and universities through their teaching, scholarship, and practices can make a difference. Presidents of colleges and universities occupy many roles, and two have a special relationship to climate change. They serve as the leaders of vibrant intellectual communities, and they are the leaders of physical communities, making us in many ways comparable to the mayors of cities and towns. Colleges and universities historically have prepared students to play important roles as active citizens by helping students to develop the critical reasoning skills that allow for effective participation in public debate on the great issues facing society.
Leading by example
We must move quickly from debate to action. Our institutions must motivate students to become active, engaged, and effective citizens in the communities they will inhabit and in the entire social fabric that makes a democracy work and makes a society possible. Colleges and universities also have an opportunity to lead by example, by taking action to reduce our own contributions to global warming. Implementing decisions requires the innovation, practical knowledge, and hard work of our institutions’ best minds, be they faculty, staff, or students.
Educating students to be effective
Plans must place a high priority on dramatic reduction of greenhouse gas – not just slowed emissions growth. As a leader of a physical community, a university president can also establish norms for personal actions that have climate change implications. We can use the university as a learning laboratory, engaging students, staff, and faculty to take climate action. Actions on our campuses have unique value in society; they have a built-in multiplier effect. At Tufts University, we are educating our students to become active, engaged, effective citizens across diverse disciplines.
Our goal
Our goal is to nurture a community of people who are: Comfortable dealing with ambiguity; Willing to take a risk to make a difference; More interested in solving problems than in taking credit; Both effective advocates and aggressive listeners; Eager to imagine and implement large, multifaceted solutions – together.
Chapter 1: A Time For Action
Climate change can end civilization as we know it
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, speaking at the World Economic Forum, January 28, 2006 said “Climate change is the only thing that has the power to fundamentally end the march of civilization as we know it and make lots of other efforts that we’re making irrelevant and impossible.”
Our imperilled planet
Across Alaska climate change is an accepted fact of life. In Fairbanks, the permafrost is thawing earlier and deeper than it has in the past. The U.S. government expects to spend over $100 million relocating residents of Shishmaref and Kivalina islands to dry land.
Warmer oceans
Warmer oceans feed more powerful storms. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which devastated Louisiana and Mississippi in the late summer of 2005, were fuelled by above-average temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico. Unpredictable and extreme weather events are a hallmark of the nonlinear character of climate change.
A 2°C increase in temperature
A 2°C increase in temperature in the coffee growing region of Uganda will reduce crop yields by 90%. In the Indian ocean island of the Maldives, where 75% of the land is less than one meter above mean sea level, decisions are being taken about which settlements to abandon.
Global warming is a problem now
The evidence of global warming has been accumulating for decades. What we thought would be a problem for our children and grandchildren is a problem now, although future generations will suffer the most profound effects.
The college and university climate change imperative
Climate change will affect all of us. The cost and availability of many resources – from water to food – may be affected by global climate change. College and university infrastructure will be profoundly affected. As fewer areas experience freezing temperatures, we can expect to see insect-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and Lyme disease move north.
How colleges and universities can make a difference
Stories of climate action are emerging on campuses across the country. These groups are blazing the trail for others to follow to take action to reduce climate-altering gas emissions.
The Tufts story
The Tufts story begins in 1998 with William Moomaw and Kelly Sims, who had both become frustrated and angry at the U.S. government’s refusal to act on climate change. Moomaw converted his frustration into a challenge: ‘What if we are joined by others in making a commitment to meeting or beating the emission reductions associated with the Kyoto Protocol? Maybe we can shame the people in Washington into acting responsibly. If the people lead, maybe the leaders will follow.’
The Tufts Climate Initiative
At an April 1999 conference, the Tufts Climate Initiative was born when Tufts President John DiBiaggio, along with a handful of companies and nongovernmental organizations, announced their commitment to reducing climate-altering emissions. More ambitious measures have since been endorsed by Tufts’ current president, Lawrence Bacow.
A strategic decision
Tufts made a strategic decision to continue its leadership in developing and implementing a campus stewardship program; we had both experience and data. Prominent Tufts interdisciplinary programs have a track record of fostering working relationships among faculty, staff, and students across departments and schools.
Why colleges and universities must take a lead in climate action
Academic institutions are well suited to take on the climate change leadership challenge.
Our primary mission
Our primary mission is to educate future generations of leaders; thus, concern for the future generations and sustainable development are intrinsic to education and a countervailing force to the cycle of short-term selfish decision making that has become acceptable in some sectors of society. Taking climate change seriously involves forging new collaborations, reaching deep into an organization’s decision-making process, and influencing social dynamics and personal behaviors.
Opportunities to exercise leadership
Climate change provides opportunities to exercise leadership by acting as responsible members of their communities to reduce emissions; Conducting research on a range of questions related to climate change and energy; Educating within academia and in the broader community; Acting out of self-interest to reduce energy costs and increase energy reliability; Contributing to a more civil society.
Tufts faces financial challenges
Tufts faces financial challenges, so the unspoken rule is that any new activity must save money, bring in new sources of revenue, or create value to the university in some other way. The flattened hierarchy of most academic institutions supports the emergence of champions at just about any place in the organization.
Rich opportunities
For faculty in a very wide range of disciplines, climate change presents rich opportunities for teaching, research, and community action. Students generate a level of enthusiasm, passion, and excitement that gets many new projects off the ground. We offer a detailed conceptual map to tie the pieces together across groups and across time.
Why we must focus on climate change and do it now
Our Arctic neighbors have sent us clear images of what is in store for the rest of the planet if we delay. The unwillingness of political leaders in either major party in Washington to ratify the Kyoto Protocol was the catalyst for the initial commitment at Tufts. Technological developments since the 1970s have brought many long-term operational savings. Lower energy costs and increased reliability can be a significant competitive advantage.
We all generate greenhouse gases
We all generate greenhouse gas, whether we are subsistence farmers burning wood for cooking fuel, office workers in an insurance company, parents driving children to soccer games, or executives at General Motors. Few people understand that burning fossil fuels is the most important contributor to climate change, or make the connection that most of the electricity in the United States is generated by burning fossil fuels.
An ideal place to develop and test strategies
Clearly an educational effort is needed to frame effective efforts that yield constructive action; academia is an ideal place to develop and test strategies. However, educational efforts must move well beyond the classroom, and quickly, to reach the full range of climate change decision makers.
Establishing a base line
The Kyoto Protocol uses 1990 emissions as a baseline, so the first step is to quantify 1990 emissions, current emissions, and growth projections, so that emission reduction targets can be established.
Evaluate progress
Once an emissions inventory has been developed, it is then possible to evaluate progress toward quantitative goals on a regular basis.
Research and action
Climate change research and action span social, environmental, and economic systems. Research to refine our understanding of global warming’s consequences and action to address these problems can and must be carried out simultaneously.
Unilateral action
There is a false notion in the public discourse that taking unilateral action on climate change is a foolish waste of money. In fact many energy-efficiency measures will yield cost savings that will accrue over the entire operational life of a building.
How you can use this book to plan and to act
We expect that readers of this book will have a range of skills relative to and knowledge of climate issues. We provide general information for those new to the subject along with detailed explanations to inform action planning
Chapter 2 covers the basics of climate change, and also provides a brief discussion of state and local action and emissions of select countries. The country data provide a context for examining the emissions of colleges and universities, particularly in relation to relative wealth. The chapter also covers the major types and sources of heat-trapping gas emissions at colleges and universities.
Chapter 3 focuses on the emissions inventory and on setting goals for climate action. One of the great challenges of taking climate change action at a college or university is learning what actions are most effective and most significant. The campus heat-trapping gas inventory section introduces the sources associated with the highest level of emissions.
Chapter 4 discusses climate actors in a university setting. Every member of the college community makes decisions that affect the level of heat-trapping gas emissions, but some decision makers have more authority than others to make dramatic changes. And some have larger budgets. You need to understand these player’ roles, agendas, and priorities to work most effectively with them.
Chapter 5 covers strategies and tactics to achieve emission reduction goals. We discuss projects ranging from the glamorous to the obscure, each with different emission implications. Decision making to inform climate action also needs to take into account the cost of emission-reducing measures, the priorities of the institution, the magnitude of the reduction, and the opportunities presented by alternative campus activities and plans.
Chapters 6 and 7 take a very close look at campus buildings where you will find the greatest opportunities for emission reductions and life-cycle cost savings. Chapter 6 covers the incremental measures you can take as part of building management and upgrading. Chapter 7 begins at the planning stage for new buildings, offering strategies to get integrated design and performance solutions embedded in the minds of the designers and engineers. Chapter 7 follows the process through construction and testing, with tips for the climate activist on how to champion low-emission, healthy building design options at every stage.
Opportunities to make a difference go well beyond buildings. Operations, the subject of chapter 8, offers numerous places to reduce emissions in purchasing and transportation.
Chapter 9 looks at planning and policies that affect a college or university’s emissions. Program planning and evaluation for the climate advocate as well as institutional planning, including master planning and fiscal planning, are covered.
Chapter 10 looks at personal actions each member of the college community can take to reduce global warming. This information is directly transferable to personal decisions made by people outside a college or university campus.
Some of the work of the Tufts Climate Initiative has been informed by student projects. Chapter 11 takes climate action projects into the classroom. We offer faculty suggestions for projects and approaches to inspire students, giving them the satisfaction that comes from creating value for campus decision makers and the community.
Tapping into hidden student energy
The story of one student group, Environmental Consciousness Outreach (ECO), offers a case study in community commitment. They organized a wind-power referendum in the spring of 2005 to support university purchase of wind power in which 40% of the students participated with 88% voting for the wind initiative.
Stories to inspire action
In the final chapter of this book we reflect on what inspires action and what makes a credible effort by colleges and universities committed to climate action. We argue that only by going well beyond business as usual can institutions legitimately claim that they are acting responsibly and educating future generations for a world transformed by global warming.
We all contribute to global warming
Colleges and universities, like most people, organizations, and companies, contribute to global warming while conducting normal activities. Yet few people know how to transform their concern into action. Through education and innovation, colleges and universities have an opportunity to lead the transformation. Colleges and universities can reduce their emissions of heat-trapping gas at the same time they educate and inspire members of their communities, develop new technologies and, in many cases, reduce long-term energy costs.