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 When we first heard about global warming, we knew
we needed to act. And fortunately, we’ve learned that
we already have almost everything we need to solve the
problem. We already have cars that can get over 100
miles per gallon. We already have the technology to get
most of our energy from wind and solar power. And we
can already make buildings so efficient that they need
only a tiny amount of air conditioning in the summer.
We can stop global warming if we just get enough people
involved and put these solutions into action. That’s why
we joined the Campus Climate Challenge with hundreds
of other colleges and high schools across North America.
We’re educating ourselves and the campus
about all the ways we can stop global warming,
doing stuff like showcasing the newest clean
car technology, running events powered by
solar, and organizing energy-saving
competitions. And we’re working to get
our politicians to do their part to stop
global warming.
The bottom line is that we’re not
waiting around. We’re starting right
here, right now, and we need
your help.
RECENT COOL CLIMATE
CHALLENGE VICTORIES
ZERO GLOBAL WARMING
Last year, over 300 schools—including the entire University of
California system—committed to going “climate neutral,” which
means those campuses will produce no global warming pollution.
These commitments will be implemented over the next ten to
twenty years—startingright away this year.
CLEAN ENERGY CAMPUSES
Meanwhile, more and more campuses are taking the first steps
toward reducing their global warming pollution by using clean
energy like wind and solar, rather than dirty energy from coal,
natural gas and oil. Last year, four University of Wisconsin
campuses committed to being powered completely by clean
energy by 2010. The University of Colorado-Denver approved a
massive campus solar project, one of the biggest outside California!
And schools in Maryland, Tennessee and Connecticut joined
hundreds of other schools in switching some or all of their electricity
use over to clean energy.
CLEAN CAR SHOWS
Never mind hybrid cars that get 40 miles per gallon. We can build
cars today that get 100 to 1000 miles per gallon. Last year,
students organized “Clean Car Shows on the Quad” at schools
like UMASS-Amherst, the University of Colorado and UCLA to
showcase these and other clean car technologies, and even
gave free test drives!
ENERGY SAVING COMPETITIONS
Last year, Rutgers University organized a huge competition between
all the dorms to see who could use the least amount of electricity.
All the dorms participated, and the winners got points added to
their meal plan. At UC-Santa Barbara and a bunch of other schools,
students organized huge light bulb switch-out events, getting
hundreds of students to replace regular bulbs with super energy
efficient ones. And schools like St. Louis Community College in
Missouri and Westfield State College in Massachusetts implemented
new policies to shut down all computers at night, which saves a
ton of energy!
GETTING POLITICIANS TO DO THEIR PART
Students at the University of New Hampshire, Iowa State University
and dozens of other schools invited their congressmembers to
campus to join students in watching “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Hundreds of students showed up at each these events, and they
grilled their representatives about their plans to fight global warming
in Congress, securing fresh, new commitments to sponsor strong
national global warming legislation. Last fall, Connecticut students
followed the candidates for Congress around and asked them to
commit to strong renewable energy standards—and the winner
followed through on his promise to students! Washington students
helped qualify and pass a ballot measure that will exponentially
increase their state’s use of clean energy. This summer, students
started trailing the Presidential candidates to ask them to outline
their plan to stop global warming, speaking to nearly every candidate!
And this year, Massachusetts and Wisconsin students are gearing
up for big statewide campaigns to pass new laws that reduce the
whole state’s global warming pollution.
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