After reading Thursday's article A New Shade of Green,"" I was unable to grasp the overall message that Patricia Mo was attempting to express. Is Patricia Mo stating that students do not know how nor have the energy to be more environmentally conscious? Destroying our environment is one of today's most pressing issues. There has been a tremendous increase in environmental consciousness on every level, ranging from the fashion industry all the way to Capitol Hill. In my opinion, Patricia's article discourages student readers from taking a responsibility to protect this environment by not realizing herself the significant impact small actions can have on minimizing our individual eco-footprint.
This academic year, I have the privilege of the being the elected chair of WISPIRG (Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group), one of the largest, most politically active student organizations on UW-Madison's campus. One of the branches of WISPIRG focuses on providing students with the knowledge and tools needed to live a greener lifestyle. A campaign that WISPIRG runs is the ""Big Red, Go Green"" campaign. BRGG organizes the dorm energy competition, which is held campus wide every April in the UW-Madison residence halls. With the dedication of volunteers in WISPIRG, dorm-appointed leaders and some educational training, over 9,000 students on average have reduced their particular hall's energy consumption by 17 percent! The reduction in energy consumption was translated into over $9,000 of savings for the university, as well as to future students. If the monetary savings does not catch your eye, then look at the reduction of UW's CO2 output by 93 tons! The numbers themselves demonstrate that within one month students were able to change small habits, which in turn created an enormous reduction.
We should be encouraging fellow students and the faculty of the university to take responsibility for the impact our actions have on the world; all it takes is a little bit of conscious raising and education. I personally doubt that any student went through a paradigm shift in their thinking during the competition and decided to save the environment. They all realized how easy it is to be more environmentally friendly. For those students that feel like they have to be perfect to have an impact: Every little bit helps.
There are numerous resources that can give you the tools to make positive changes in your life, of which WISPIRG is one of them. The conversations we need to be having on this campus should not be ""It's Not Easy Being Green"" but instead, ""Let's all work together and make our world a cleaner place.""
Tony Uhl is a senior majoring in history. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
