Thanks to the mainstream media attention – Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth - the majority of Americans now recognize that global warming is real and its effects are catastrophic. The good thing is that due to all the coverage public opinion has been solidified so there is very little skepticism about global warming.
The bad news is that all the coverage has been about the problem. As a result, the public doesn’t understand the solutions and tends to think that there is no turning back. However, we have everything we need to solve global warming right now. Consider:
• TODAY-We can get a quarter of our energy from wind and solar. In fact, to provide 20% of the nation's electricity, only about 0.6% of the land of the lower 48 states would have to be developed with wind turbines. (http://www.nrel.gov/wind/wind_potential.html) Think of the potential in the windy plains of Midwest, Cape Cod, Rocky Mountains and the sun in the Southwest!
• TODAY - We can make cars that get over 100 miles per gallon, yet the U.S. average is 20 mpg. Breakthroughs are occurring each day in materials and fuel technology.
• TODAY- We can make skyscrapers, office buildings and homes so efficient that they use almost no energy.
• TODAY – Cities like Portland have already reduced their global warming pollution down to safe levels and twelve major universities now get 100% of their energy from wind and solar power.
Imagine what will be possible in 10 years! It took less than 10 years to figure out how to land a man on the moon. In 1990, cell phones were the size of a shoebox and cost a fortune. A CD player cost $900 in 1984. The price of flat screen TVs is dropping before our very eyes. Technology moves very fast when we put our minds to it.
This is all good news because, according to NASA’s chief scientist, we have just 10 years to put the basic solutions in motion. If we slow down the planet’s global warming pollution during this time and get ourselves on track to eventually reduce it down to zero, we might be able to escape the worst effects.
A lot of the pieces are falling into place. We have a bill in Congress that if enacted tomorrow, would do everything scientists say we need to do to turn the ship around. The PIRGs have done more than any other network to push the envelope on renewable energy and global warming pollution standards in the states.
But we need to move faster and the key is getting the public to be inspired by the solutions.
This is where students come in. At other times in history, students have been the catalyst for social change and this is our moment to play that role again. Consider:
• Almost every college campus in America today has a group of students working to make university more environmentally sustainable.
• Campuses are implementing global warming solutions more aggressively than anyone else. While in Oregon and other places, we’re fighting to get just 20% of our energy from wind and solar by 2010, Central Oregon CC and a dozen other schools are going almost 100% renewable this year.
• Young people are voting. Youth voter turnout increased faster than the general population in 2004 and again in 2005.
The Campus Climate Challenge is designed to set us up to lead the way, in two ways:
• Use our schools to show the public the outer limits of what is possible. Every time we get our schools to go 100% clean energy, that pushes the envelope of what’s possible. We want this to happen in more places than ever and aggressively promote what we’ve done to the media, the public and our elected officials to challenge them to follow our leadership.
• Educate our fellow students about global warming solutions. In just a few years, we are going to be teaching kids, running businesses, and electing leaders. If we engage our peers in global warming solutions now, we will be able to implement those solutions much faster in just a few years.
Are you up for the Challenge? Over 300 high schools and colleges have joined the Campus Climate Challenge. By 2008, over 1000 schools will be participating!
This toolkit is designed to give you the tools you need to get the Challenge started and keep it going! We update this toolkit frequently as we get more ideas and resources, so check back at www.ClimateChallenge.org or email jessy@energyaction.net updates.
