Enjoy that brisk, clean"" October air this Saturday at Camp Randall, Badger fans. UW officials are publicizing the homecoming game as the Big Ten's first ""carbon neutral"" football game ever. The event aims to raise awareness about the problematic dependence on carbon-emitting energy, as well as encouraging recycling and conservation.
In addition, the Athletic Department plans to use the event to promote its own recycling and sustainability plan to be implemented over the next five years.
Officials from both the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the UW Athletic Department have a number of strategies in place to create a ""carbon-neutral"" atmosphere. Earlier this month, officials planted thousands of trees at a local tree farm in Cambridge, Wisconsin. CALS and UW Athletic Department officials also plan to buy the equivalent number of carbon credits to match the amount of emissions during game day. Carbon credits pay other carbon-spouting companies to reduce their emissions to lower
America's daily carbon output.
The efforts put forth by CALS and Athletic Department officials are obviously good starting points, but much of this first Big Ten ""carbon-neutral"" game seems to be overshadowed by some clear hypocrisy, reducing these actions to mere publicity stunts.
For starters, the carbon credits used to offset the game's emissions were not even funded by CALS or the Athletic Department themselves, but instead by an anonymous donor. At least the Athletic Department could have humbled themselves enough to donate some of their massive revenue (gathered during these carbon-spouting football games) to purchase the carbon credits without funding from an outside source.
Also, a Badger home football game is not exactly the best venue for promoting a ""carbon-neutral"" event, as the thousands of motorists traveling to and from Madison easily cancel out any chance of a difference being made. If anything, Badger home games are antithesis to reducing carbon emissions, regardless of how many carbon credits are purchased or on-campus hybrid vehicles are used within the city limits.
It is also quite hypocritical to applaud university officials for their carbon-clearing efforts when a massive coal plant looms only a few blocks away from Camp Randall as the CALS and UW Athletic Department officials rave about the pioneering work they have done.
CALS and UW Athletic Department officials' hearts are in the right place, but their message is clouded in the medium through which they are promoting this event. Schedule an event on the public stage when you have actually proven the difference you are supposedly making. Do not herald a victory when the battle against carbon emissions is being lost every day.
