Environmental fervour now no longer a fad, but a mission shaping education and careers
Straits Times 23 Jun 08;
WASHINGTON - THE environmental fervour sweeping college campuses has reached beyond the push to recycle plastics and offer organic food.
It is now transforming the curriculum, permeating classrooms, academic majors and expensive new research institutes.
The University of Maryland teaches 'green' real estate strategies for landscape architects.
The University of Virginia's business graduate students recently created a way to use discarded rice husks to generate power in rural Indian villages. And at a Catholic University architecture studio last week, students displayed ideas for homes made from discarded shipping containers.
'It should be part of everything we do,' said Catholic student Ligia Johnson, whose plan for the Kenilworth neighbourhood in North-east Washington included roofs that would allow the collection of rainwater and the growth of plants and trees.
What was once a fringe interest, perhaps seemingly a fad, has become entrenched fully in academic life, university officials say, affecting not just how students live, but what they learn and, as graduates, how they will change workplaces and neighbourhoods.
At George Washington University (GWU) last month, many students pinned green ribbons on their graduation robes or their recycled-cotton caps and signed pledges to take their commitment to environmentalism into their jobs.
Concern about the environment has waxed and waned in the past few decades, said GWU president Steven Knapp.
But with fears of climate change and high petrol prices, 'the situation has become dire enough that people are focused on it', he said.
'Energy is costly enough that people are focused on it. We really think this time, it is here to stay,' he said.
For years, student activists have demanded environmentally friendly changes, prompting university officials to re-evaluate how they heat classrooms, water campus greens and buy light bulbs.
Frostburg State University in Western Maryland, for instance, has a wind-powered generating station, while Johns Hopkins University is planning to build its own heat and power generator.
Students are also driving the academic push that is infusing curriculum and research with an environmental consciousness.
For those who are sceptical about global warming and think that the current trend is often too alarmist, the changes carry risk.
'It discredits science,' said MIT meteorology professor Richard Lindzen.
'It is propaganda,' he added, saying that opposing viewpoints are rarely explored.
George Mason University economics department chairman Donald Boudreaux added: 'I think it is getting a little out of proportion, the emphasis on the environment.'
He said people increasingly looked at environmental issues almost as a religion, with unquestioning belief rather than thinking critically about scientific evidence or economic issues.
But many school officials say there is a growing consensus about climate change.
'Three or four years ago, I would hear from people that global warming is a fraud,' said Catholic University architecture dean Randall Ott.
'I don't hear that at all now,' he said, especially from students. He said that in his view, 'the evidence is overwhelming - and very troubling. We at our university feel a certain ethical mission to be operative on this issue'.
Hundreds of university presidents have signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, pledging to take leadership on eliminating greenhouse gases.
In 2006, the group, now called the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, had about 35 members. Now, it has more than 500.
'Colleges are realising that achieving sustainability is one of the defining challenges of this century,' said Mr Julian Dautremont-Smith, a member of the association. 'They want to be on the right side of it.'
The biggest driver, he said, is student demand.
The Princeton Review, which started rating colleges' sustainability this year, did a survey asking prospective students what they wanted from their school. Two-
thirds said they would value a commitment to the environment, and nearly a quarter said it would strongly influence their choice.
WASHINGTON POST
Environmental curriculum
Harvard University's (top) Environmental Economics Programme is tapping students and professors from numerous subject areas for research issues such as climate change.
# The University of Maryland at Baltimore's environmental nursing programme has included a push to remove mercury thermometers from hospitals.
# At the university's College Park campus, students are taught to think about the long-term effects of growth.
# The University of Maryland also teaches 'green' real estate strategies for landscape architects.
# Catholic University students want 'greener' courses in architecture, with topics such as computer modelling programmes that calculate how much energy buildings use under different climatic conditions.
# Students at the University of Oregon push the school to add a minor in environmental studies.
# t Johns Hopkins University (above), students in a part-time master's degree programme for working engineers want more courses on alternative energy.
