14 Points

Campuses are becoming models with ambitious emissions reduction campaigns. Maine’s College of the Atlantic committed to climate neutrality (i.e. being a net zero emitter of GHGs) and NYU purchased enough wind power to offset its entire conventional electricity consumption for the academic year. Will 2007 be the year of climate responsible academia, as many students of campusclimatechallenge.org hope?

Cities are showing others that they can do the right thing too. The neighboring towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, North Carolina, held a Carbon Reduction Summit last Earth Day (April 22) that aimed to help them form a collaborative game plan with UNC-Chapel Hill to reduce emissions by 60% by 2050. Will this vision and initiative spread to the thousands of other municipalities throughout the US?

Further up the federal hierarchy, states too have provided examples to be emulated. California has taken the lead by passing Assembly Bill 32 that commits the state to 2050 emissions that are 80% below 1990 levels. We in New Jersey have the opportunity to pass a similar bill and become a leader on the East Coast. Will there be any other takers?

On the national level, a new Congress will take the reigns with an opportunity to leave the procrastination of the past behind by passing efficiency standards and a carbon tax that penalizes dirtier forms of energy and rewards innovation in renewables. And will any of the 2008 Presidential candidates take the lead by prioritizing global warming mitigation? I know of a few million people who would help them get elected if so.

On the international level, we can construct a post-Kyoto agreement for the period beyond 2012 that is better than Kyoto and that ensures the inclusion of large growing emitters such as India and China. President Bush doesn’t have to let a failed war in Iraq define his Presidency if he takes on global warming like his fellow Republican Schwarzenegger.

Changing course from the fossil fuel dependent energy system of the 20th century is a daunting task. It will take serious innovation by producers of biomass, wind, and solar energy, as well as commitment from us consumers to pay the extra few pennies per kilowatt hour that can change the world. The cost reduction of renewables, over the last several years, has helped to spur their phenomenal growth of 30+% annually. But there is a long road ahead of many years before they compete on the same scale with natural gas (some GHGs), oil (more GHGs), and coal (most GHGs). Energy efficiency will make the clean energy revolution possible as long as we set the right policies and make the financial commitment upfront to save money and energy in the long-run through hybrid vehicles, compact fluorescent light bulbs, LEDs, Energy Star appliances, and other advances soon to come.

We like to be number one at everything here in the US, but unfortunately when it comes to curbing our nationwide emissions, we are dead last. Could 2007 be the year that we turned things around and heralded accomplishments such as beginning to take the solar and wind power use titles back from Germany? I think you and I can make it happen. It will certainly be on my New Year’s resolution list, and I hope on yours too.

Dennis Markatos-Soriano, markatos@princeton.edu
2008 Master’s Candidate at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School & co-chair of Princeton SURGE, Students United for a Responsible Global Environment