A group of Maryland college students want the University System of Maryland to reduce pollution and offset the schools? impact on the environment.
“We?re rising to the challenge and confronting the threat of global warming,” said Erica Stout, co-founder of the newly formed Maryland Student Climate Coalition and Towson sophomore, standing in Federal Hill Park on an unusually warm autumn day Tuesday.
The group, which includes students from most of the system?s 11 universities, plans in mid-December to present the Board of Regents, the colleges? governing board, with a policy to become carbon neutral, which means reducing carbon emissions where possible and offsetting emissions with green technologies.
Students met last weekend to plan the campaign, and are collecting petition signatures to deliver to the board, said Andrew Nazdin, co-founder of the Maryland Student Climate Coalition. The plan would include conducting an energy audit and using clean energy sources.
A carbon neutral plan is expected to be met with support. A few schools have pledged to reduce their carbon footprint, and Chancellor William Kirwan named environmental initiatives among his top priorities for the system to pursue over the next few years, said University System of Maryland spokesman John Buettner.
“The question isn?t whether to reduce carbon footprint, it?s about how and what measures have to be taken in a calculated plan to do it,” he said, adding that the chancellor?s plan hasn?t been finalized.
Holding signs urging action on global warming, the students joined members of the Maryland chapter of the Sierra Club and Episcopal Diocese of Maryland to urge state politicians to take “a radical approach” to tackling the causes and effects of global warming.
“We no longer have the luxury of small steps,” said Lee Walker-Oxenham, political chairwoman for the Howard County chapter of the state?s Sierra Club.
The groups want Gov. Martin O?Malley to pledge to reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050, promote conservation efforts and dedicate transportation money to public transit, Walker-Oxenham said.
In April, O?Malley established the Commission on Climate Change, and recommendations for addressing climate change are due in November.
