2008 Woodie Awards
PUCC mulls over climate declaration
Sami Richards
Issue date: 3/14/08 Section: News
The youth of the Pacific Northwest are answering the call of the climate crises. College by college are beginning to join the Cascade Climate Declaration in efforts to get their voices heard.
The Focus the Nation events are not going ignored; Pacific Undergraduate Community Council is deciding whether our campus will take part in the declaration on Friday, March 14. Nick Engelfried, co-president of Students for Environmental Awareness SEA, is expecting the decision to be an easy one. SEA is taking over the responsibilities once the decision is made.
PUCC's involvement is also important because they will help push Pacific administration to maintain the sustainability the school claims to have. Celeste Goulding, an active member of SEA, pointed out that there are a lot of little things on campus that should be done to move forward with these claims. One simple suggestion is replacing all the light bulbs on campus with more energy efficient ones.
The Cascade Climate Declaration is a document written by students that makes a promise to work toward a sustainable future by using the best means possible.
"We believe humans are indivisible from the earth," was a line pointed out by Engelfriend as being one of the most important statements made on the declaration.
Currently, there are eight schools in Oregon and Washington that have signed the declaration. Pacific would be the ninth.
It's all about implementing policy, according to Goulding and Engelfried.
"It's a solid document you can go to somebody with and say, look, this is what we want," added Goulding.
The members of SEA will be writing letters to state legislatures as well as Washington County and Forest Grove government officials.
SEA heard about this opportunity when four members were sent to Eugene to attend the Cascade Power Shift event. This was a three day event of work shops and panels on the topics of environmental awareness and sustainability, sponsored by Cascade at Work.
As well as promoting sustainability, this declaration will help get the environmental groups on Pacific's campus connected with other North West schools. "It's easy to ignore one school, a lot harder to ignore nine, ten or 14," said Goulding.
The declaration and more information about its intention can be found at www.cascadeclimate.org. Also, at www.climatechallenge.org, there is more information on what students are doing today to fight the climate crisis can be found.
The Focus the Nation events are not going ignored; Pacific Undergraduate Community Council is deciding whether our campus will take part in the declaration on Friday, March 14. Nick Engelfried, co-president of Students for Environmental Awareness SEA, is expecting the decision to be an easy one. SEA is taking over the responsibilities once the decision is made.
PUCC's involvement is also important because they will help push Pacific administration to maintain the sustainability the school claims to have. Celeste Goulding, an active member of SEA, pointed out that there are a lot of little things on campus that should be done to move forward with these claims. One simple suggestion is replacing all the light bulbs on campus with more energy efficient ones.
The Cascade Climate Declaration is a document written by students that makes a promise to work toward a sustainable future by using the best means possible.
"We believe humans are indivisible from the earth," was a line pointed out by Engelfriend as being one of the most important statements made on the declaration.
Currently, there are eight schools in Oregon and Washington that have signed the declaration. Pacific would be the ninth.
It's all about implementing policy, according to Goulding and Engelfried.
"It's a solid document you can go to somebody with and say, look, this is what we want," added Goulding.
The members of SEA will be writing letters to state legislatures as well as Washington County and Forest Grove government officials.
SEA heard about this opportunity when four members were sent to Eugene to attend the Cascade Power Shift event. This was a three day event of work shops and panels on the topics of environmental awareness and sustainability, sponsored by Cascade at Work.
As well as promoting sustainability, this declaration will help get the environmental groups on Pacific's campus connected with other North West schools. "It's easy to ignore one school, a lot harder to ignore nine, ten or 14," said Goulding.
The declaration and more information about its intention can be found at www.cascadeclimate.org. Also, at www.climatechallenge.org, there is more information on what students are doing today to fight the climate crisis can be found.
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