CNT Fall 2010 Update

Hello fellow CNTers,

I hope that everyone has had an enjoyable (and not too stressful) semester so far. I’m writing with an update on the progress of our work from this past spring and summer. The complete GHG emissions report, which was reviewed by the Chancellor’s Cabinet, was submitted to the Presidents’ Climate Commitment website on 9/15. Since then, Dr. Hale and the Chancellor have been reviewing various options for the most effective way to bring our work to the rest of the campus community. One exciting possibility is that we may do a presentation during a visit to campus of the DNR Secretary!

Andi and I (along with Professors Boulter, Pierson, and Hale) want to open up this opportunity to any members of CNT 2010 who want to participate; it is a wonderful opportunity to “show off” our research and writing, and to begin to make the case for our recommendations. (It is also a nice way to add something to your developing resumes!)

We will be working on the final presentation and an updated PowerPoint in the very near future; if you are interested in helping with any part of this process, please contact me via email as soon as possible.

Laura

CNT10 is Running Again!

Hello, fellow CNT10ers-

The Summer CNTeam met this morning, bright and early, to discuss our summer plans and go over the past reports. We will keep running posts to keep you updated throughout the summer.

If you have any additions to your Data or Legacy documents - or suggestions that have crept into your mind after speaking with the Chancellor, please let Laura or me know via blog comment or UWEC email (Andi: krunnfae; Laura: headrill).

Keep it green,

Summer CNT10

"Water Adds New Constraint to Power"

I just saw this article on NY Times (click the title for a link) and thought it was very relevant to our class.

We've talked a lot about how different kinds of power generation create different amounts of carbon. We've also discussed how one of the major problems of climate change will be water shortages. Those two debates are more connected than I thought - most types of power plants (including thermal solar) use water as a coolant. There are different ways to do this of course, with different considerations. Some methods put warm water back into rivers and lakes, which can kill wildlife, and other types let it evaporate, which doesn't kill the wildlife but wastes the water. It's a really interesting debate - and yet another wrinkle to an already complex issue of trying to generate power. At the same time, however, California has successfully put regulations in place that are encouraging new power plants to put in less water-consuming cooling systems. It remains to be seen how this issue will finally play out, but I'm looking forward to seeing where people go from here.

PowerPoint Presentation

Hi, folks-

I edited the Transportation section of the PowerPoint and altered the background color to a light beige. Feel free to change it back, etc. (Still on W Drive - Final Presentation_Draft2)

Also, if you have any more recommendations or suggestions for the Transportation section, please let me/us know via email or blog.

Just thought I'd let you know...

Thanks,

Andi

eCO2 Emissions

Post the eCO2 emissions for your section here!

Electricity is responsible for 13,278.2 metric tons of eCO2.

Please note that this uses our estimates of the months yet to come. We are going to use this number for now, but it will end up changing sometime this summer when we have all the correct data.

Energy Education Initiatives Stalled

Here's the opening from a NYT "Dot Earth" blog post--click on the title above to read the whole post at "Dot Earth":

"While the political fight over the now-vivid  environmental threat attending offshore oil drilling plays out, it remains clear that the country’s lawmakers are not remotely engaged in the  multi-pronged energy quest that would be required to move the world toward a non-polluting, yet prosperous future.
One vital prong is education. So far, Congress — even with Democrats in control — has refused to support President Obama’s repeated call for a modest investment in education initiatives that could help produce the skilled workforce required to undertake a sustained push on advancing and disseminating promising energy technologies. Last year, Congress largely rebuffed Obama’s request for $115 million for the program, called  Regaining our Energy Science and Engineering Edge. He’s trying again, this time seeking $74 million in the 2011 budget."

Elizabeth Kolbert

Thanks to all for an excellent discussion this morning.  We ran out of time to discuss the "Afterword" for the (late) 2009 paperback edition, so if you have some further thoughts--or thoughts you just didn't get a chance to express this morning--please add them here.  And perhaps you've been thinking about our overall discussion, and realize you have some things you'd like to add.  Here's the opportunity!

Click on Kolbert's name to see an interesting interview with her from 2006.

Rachel Carson

I'd like to hear your initial reactions to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.  You may choose to respond with any thoughts you had about your parents'/grandparents' lives during the time the documentary covers (say, immediately post WWII to 1963).  You may also post on any specific things from the documentary that provoked a response in you.  Let's stay focused on Carson/her book for now.

PS: If you're curious about children's books on Rachel Carson, try this Amazon.com link; it goes to one specific book, but then also shows other related books.

Heifer International Building

I went on the Civil Rights Pilgrimage over spring break and one of our stops was the Heifer International Building, one of the most sustainable buildings I've ever seen in my life. I've been meaning to upload these pictures for a little while. Basically they built the building extremely narrow so that natural light could be use to light the majority of the building. Similarly, the LED lights used to light the areas of the building that do not receive enough natural light sense how much light is in the room and become correspondingly more or less dim to save energy. They also collect rainwater to use in toilets, etc. where they don't need actual city water to save water resources. They have their heating vents in the floor to allow for more efficient heating and cooling. The carpeting is recycled and made in squares so that if any needs to be replaced it can be replaced one square at a time to save money and resources. These are just a few of the things I remember from the building and I actually submitted a few for the new Davies Center, but I thought some of it was really cool and you guys might be interested.

Nuclear option?

While I realize this maybe a sensitive topic to some, I was recently introduced to a new and inovative method using nuclear power on a small scale, like for a community or in our case, a university. The company is called Hyperion Power Generation.........

"Founded in 2007, Hyperion Power Generation Inc. is a privately held company that was formed to commercialize a small modular nuclear reactor designed by Los Alamos National Laboratory (“LANL”) scientists leveraging forty years of technological advancement. The reactor, known as the Hyperion Power Module (“HPM”), was designed to fill a previously unmet need for a transportable power source that is safe, clean, sustainable, and cost-efficient."

I believe we often tend to immediately dismiss nuclear power as too costly and unsafe but I would like you all to consider the idea, even if briefly. Check out their website I linked and particularly the tabs "Why Nuclear?" and "Quick Facts Sheet".

Just for some balence, I also suggest you visit Nature.com and read "Nuclear Energy: Assessing the Emissions" where Kurt Kleiner reports on whether nuclear power deserves its reputation as a low-carbon energy source.

This could be an alternative to our coal fired heating plant and would most likely, vastly reduce our UW-Eau Claire carbon footprint.

I am very interested in your thoughts.

Of Cardboard and Cow Farts

Hey, everyone!

I was just bopping around on the internet and found this article on a green design contest. The link is in the title. The article itself is about a year old, but I had never heard of the winning designs. It's short, interesting, and applicable to our class. I hope you enjoy it!

For Robyn and Isaac especially!

We were wondering exactly how you calculated the offset for the Waste-to-Energy program. It says "To calculate the offset of Veolia Environmental services Waste-to-Energy program, figures for the campus' tons of garbage were collected and were first input into the CACPCCC as if the waste were disposed of into a landfill instead of through the program...This value was then again put into the CACPCCC to generate carbon emissions generated within the Waste-to-Energy program." As far as inputing these goes, can you perform a calculation in solely one area of the calculator without having any other data in there? Thanks!

Transportation Survey Comments

I just watched my boyfriend take our survey, and we found a few things that confused us. I am not sure if these need/can be changed, but I just wanted to make everyone aware. Hopefully other people will add their thoughts here too. Anyway, we thought that it would be helpful to say how much parking permits currently cost when asking how raising the price would impact the survey taker. Also, my boyfriend said that there already is an electronic ride board. Are we trying to find out if people are aware of it? Or, are we asking if we want another kind of electronic system?

Hope that helps!

Spring Break and Beyond

Happy Friday,

Just a reminder that Mission Advertise starts a week from this Sunday night and will continue Monday morning. Amanda and I will need help putting up table tents (one per table), posters (we have a list of places), tying up the banner, placing lawn signs (campus mall and south side of Davies), and chalking! Amanda and I will be doing the display case, as well.

We have everything reserved from April 5-7 (Monday-Wednesday) of next week, so they need to go up quickly to get the word out as much as possible. We can continue chalking throughout, and the Axis TV's (Davies) will have information up throughout as well. In addition, I am meeting with the Spectator this morning to try to convince them to run an article-line with Green/Carbon Footprint information and a follow-up of our study.

Back to things you can help with: We will provide all of the materials needed - all we need is you to show up! Please email me with your availability and if you have a specific job that you'd like to do.

Thanks, and enjoy spring break! (Remember to track your miles to your destination!)

Andi

The discussion continues...

I’ve included below two of the questions that we didn’t get to the other day. Please find some time over the next two weeks to post some of your thoughts and responses to these two questions. I’ll try to keep up, but if I don’t respond right away, look for me to do so over break. I look forward to your thoughts...

1) Climate change “skeptics” (their word; my word choice is “deniers”) often claim that the science of climate change is not being carried out appropriately. To begin a discussion of the true “scientific method”, please take a look at http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/howscienceworks_01. It’s a simple website, probably intended for an audience younger than you, but its content is right on target. Thoughts, comments? How does this differ from what you learned in primary school; how does it differ from what you believed before you read it? How do computer models of the global climate “fit” into the scientific process described in the website above?

2) In a nice synergy of accident, Elizabeth Kolbert contributed the segment at the end of Chapter 2 of Schmidt & Wolfe: Picturing the Science. Read that segment (pp. 70-71) and think about the way climate change is portrayed in the media, both locally (i.e. the Spectator) and nationally (USA Today, perhaps or even the Web); maybe even Google some articles to get a feel for it. Also read (or re-read) the segment at the end of Chapter 6 of Schmidt and Wolfe: Picturing the Science by Naomi Oreskes (pp.153-155). What are your thoughts on the reporting of climate change; is it generally “fair and balanced”? What does that phrase even mean in the context of reporting an inherently scientific story, but one with enormous socioeconomic implications? What sources do you trust; which do you exclude?

An Idea for Our Report

Hey everyone,

As the heating team met today after class, the idea came up to include a quote from the heating plant supervisor Jim Franklin. I bring this up to the whole class because I was wondering if for consistency, we would all like to include at least one quote in our respective sections. It could make our writing more personal as it did when Kolbert added her characters. Ours would be on a smaller scale, but I think it's something we should consider and decide on.

Also, maybe we would like to discuss consistency with photos as well. Would everyone be willing to commit to providing at least one photo for their section? We could use it at the beginning of each section with the heading, perhaps.

Finally, I have a separate question regarding the electricity team. This might be over your heads, but I hear every now and then that a lot of electronics take energy when they're plugged in even if they're turned off. I personally use a power bar for most of my electronics, and I turn it off every night. I'm curious to know if that makes any difference in my carbon footprint, and if so, could we promote the use of power bars for the campus especially with the student body living in the dorms?

Letter: Global warming evidence exists

When you have a minute or two, read Dr. Crispin Pierce's letter to the Spectator.  I've included a link to the on-line edition (which I hope will work-it's an awfully long URL).

Survey to be Opened on Later Date

Hello again, my fellow CNTers-

The Transportation Team (along with Dr. H and Robyn) met this morning for a bit of review work. While editing the survey, we came to the conclusion that with our potential participants already being swamped with surveys and midterms, our difficulty preparing multiple incentives, and the delay in finalizing our "year," we would be better off moving the survey to a later date.

The survey will now be sent out after spring break.

This means that we have a longer time to do test-runs of our survey for clarity and content, and a few more weeks to find incentives. If you have any ideas, suggestions, or incentive-connections, please contact me or another member of the Transportation Team right away and we will take care of it.

In addition, we have decided to use the 2009-2010 fiscal year for our data collection.

While this includes estimations, "Choice 3: July 1, 2009 - June 31, 2010" was by far the most popular choice of our classmates, as shown on our Timeline blog comments. This means that each of the teams using University-recorded data will need to view the data for May and June of previous years in order to estimate the carbon output for May and June 2010 (based on trend). The Transportation Team will be using the June and July 2009 transportation data as June and July 2010 in order to keep our data as accurate as possible. Though the estimations will result in a small drop of data-integrity and reliability, the vast majority of the class believed this to be our best option for the sake of relevance and clarity.

Until Friday,

Andi

Transportation Survey, Rough Draft 4

Hello, CNTers -

The external reviewer has replied and given us many constructive suggestions. I went through the survey and made the changes that I thought were appropriate and have emailed the Transportation Team with the edited version of our survey.
(In case you wanted an update on how it's going!)

Also, the Transportation Team is working hard on finding incentives for the survey. If you know of any ideas or have any great connections, please contact me at: krunnfae@uwec.edu so that we can finalize our prizes.

I will see you all on Friday,
Andi

It's All About Timing (elevated from a comment to a post by Dr H)

Because this is an important issue, and I'm afraid Andi's thoughtful summarizing of the situation will be missed where it is, I'm copying/pasting/posting it here to get your attention.  The rest of this is all from Andi.  (also, don't miss Lynn's post right below this one, which I don't want you to miss because it is so COOL!)

I agree with Elizabeth - we should quickly come to a decision; until we do, our survey and data-collecting are at a stand-still. I also agree with Isaac in that we absolutely cannot use data from two separate years. The transportation and University-usage data must be from the same year or our results will be more skewed than they would be from estimating one or the other. We have three year choices: July 1, 2008 - June 31, 2009 June 1, 2009 - May 31, 2010 July 1, 2009 - June 31, 2010 Below, I've commented on what I see as pro's and con's for each. Please let me know what you think, and let's make a decision.

Making and storing energy; learning from plants

I was checking out a Public Radio report on Methane bubbling up from the perma frost in Siberia and happened on this great article in Scientific American about storing energy like plants, by spliting water molecules. I always believed that plants have a lot to teach us.

"One drinking-water bottle could provide enough energy for an entire household in the developing world if Dan Nocera has his way. A chemist from M.I.T. and founder of the company Sun Catalytix, Nocera has developed a cobalt-based catalyst that allows him to store energy the same way plants do: by splitting water."

Check it out!
"Shift happens: Will Artificial Photosynthesis Power the World?" 

Maybe someday the mighty Chippewa will be our salvation for energy storage.

Eau Claire Air Advisory

The DNR has issued an Air Watch for Eau Claire until tomorrow. The title is a link to the DNR's website with further details. I thought that it was interesting that even in (relatively) rural Wisconsin we hit "Code Orange" - meaning the air could be unhealthy for those people in sensitive groups (elderly, children, etc.) while we were working on this Carbon Footprint Project.

The Time Line Issue

Hello, everyone!

Last night, I was looking through the carbon calculator just to get an idea of what kind of data I would be in charge of collecting. However, I soon realized a flaw in the time line we were observing. Simply put, it would be impossible for me to come up with data for the remainder of the 2010 school year. I'm sure a few of you have hit this same brick wall.

I then turned to my handy-dandy Carbon Emissions 2008 Report for answers. I realized in their report, they monitored the 2006-2007 school year, which made sense to me. So I pose these questions to you:

Would it be beneficial to continue this trend and monitor the 2008-2009 school year? Wouldn't this make our data more sound when comparing it in the years to come? Does it make sense to use data which already exists in comparison to data which will involve a greater measure of guess-work?

What is your opinion?

First Draft of the Transportation Survey

Tonight in the library, Andi Heather and I met to put together the first draft of our Transportation Survey. Although we were rushed to finish this draft in a few days, this meeting was extremely successful. Several issues will need to be discussed further with the class to make a final decision, but we were all impressed with how far the document has already come. Andi will be e-mailing this draft to the transportation team, and I will be printing paper copies to bring to class on Monday (on scrap paper to be environmentally friendly).

I also brought up the suggestion of putting boxes in each of the dorms' computer rooms for scrap paper. Yes, recycling the paper does help the environment, but it would be even better to use both sides of the paper first. Personally, I have often dug through the recycling bin for paper only used on one side to quickly print an email. A box to put store scrap paper would be extremely convenient.

Climate Engineering?

I was browsing through the Reader's Digest at work today and came across an article that might interest some of you. It is very short, definitely Reader's Digest style, but it is very applicable to some of our discussions. Personally, I think the idea of re-engineering our climate is almost as scary as global climate change itself! This article (which I linked the title to) does pose some interesting questions though, especially the section about "unilateral action." Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think!

Wal-Mart Unveils Plan to Make Supply Chain Greener

Here's the opening paragraph of this article from The New York Times web site's "Energy & Environment" page, part of its Business section (it appears in today's print edition, too).

"Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, announced on Thursday that it would cut some 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain by the end of 2015 — the equivalent of removing more than 3.8 million cars from the road for a year."

Remember our discussion with Dr. Phillips about hidden costs of our stuff?  This article fits right into that.

Click the title above to read the entire piece.

Just For Fun

I traveled to Stockholm last weekend. As luck would have it, the weather was the worst the city had experienced in decades. Trains and buses ran late, and cars piled up on the highways. The city was almost completely locked down. Undeterred, mailmen on their trusty bicycles forged on. I thought I should take a picture for you guys.

Buildings at Linneuniversitetet

Hello again from Sweden, it’s been a while. From the look of the blog, you’ve all been making quite a bit of head way. I thought I’d write a little about the buildings on campus today.

One evident piece of work being done to make the university here more sustainable is in the design of buildings. They have heavy doors, large air-locks, great insulation, and always an abundance of natural light. Nearly all the buildings have skylights and the floor to ceiling windows found in many rooms are extremely thick. (It’s quite cold out right now, but when I touch the window to my left it only feels slightly cooler than the room. I have a feeling the windows in Phillips might fail this test.) On many of these windows there are automatic shades that sense the level of sunlight coming in and lower to prevent glare. There are also rooms within the buildings that have glass walls, allowing sunlight to penetrate far past the periphery. Structures are also built with their exposure to the sun in mind. Over south facing windows there are awnings that work to shade against the summer sun, and the north face of buildings are typically less exposed. Overall, the theme here seems to be well thought out construction that focuses on energy conservation.

Cows Can Curb Global Warming

I was in a waiting room earlier today and I looked over and saw an article that someone was reading in Time. I noticed that the title had something to do with cows and global warming, so when I got back to the dorms I looked it up and really enjoyed what I read. It doesn't pertain to what we're doing so much at the university (unless the university's considering raising cattle in the near future), but the science is definitely still relevant. Check it out if you get a chance!

Class Log February 24th

Headline News from Class Log:  E-mail Dr. H or Robyn with top 3 choices for work assignment groups by noon February 25th.

Work Assignment Groups, with number of students needed for each

~ 2 electricity & cooling
~ 3 heating
~ 1 solid waste
~ 1 refrigerants & other chemicals
~ 2 offsets
~ 6 transportation (with survey focus divided as follows)
- 2 will learn Qualtrics
- 2 write/revise questions
- 2 research/ blog review
All 6 work on PR/possible incentives, etc,; decisions about who will handle transportation research beyond the survey will be decided within the group of six.

Other Notes on the Survey

~ We will be giving copies of the survey draft to review to the architects working on the Campus Master Plan, and also to the Clean Commute Initiative, and to the Parking-Transportation ad hoc committee.
~ Survey will close at end of week before Spring Break
- Going live on the March 15th
- Testing the survey the weekend before the 15th with Qualtrics.
- Draft of questions by March 1st (Monday), Review on March 3rd.
Dr. H introduced the opportunity for two students to write and edit the final report with Dr. Jim Boulter, Dr. Kim Pierson and Dr. H this summer.  If you are interested, E-mail Dr. H ASAP.

U.S. Sources of Electricity

After our discussion on Monday regarding the sources of electricity in the United States, I decided to look up an old site I remember from my Conservation of the Environment course. It's actually provided by National Public Radio, and the link for the title of this post leads you to an interactive map of the power grid of the U.S. There are also places to click so you can see the sources of power in individual states, where power plants currently exist, and potential locations for solar and wind energy. Hope some people find these maps as interesting as I did.

An Interesting Event?

I was browsing through recent events on campus and I thought this was... interesting, to say the least:

On Thursday, February 25th at 6:00 p.m. the College Republicans will be showing "Not Evil, Just Wrong," a new documentary by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney in Hibbard 101 which seeks to "provide a different perspective on one of today's hot topics, Climate Change."

Apparently there will also be free root beer floats and drawings for books.

I unfortunately have to work, but I thought it was extremely interesting and a great opportunity for our class! If any of you go, let me know how it is!

"State May Shut Down Five Coal-Fired Power Plants"

Opening lines of article:  "The state will install more pollution controls, eliminate coal use or possibly shut down five coal-fired heating plants, the Wisconsin Department of Administration announced Friday.
The plants are at Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison and UW campuses in Eau Claire, La Crosse, Oshkosh and River Falls."

Click the title above to read the rest of the story as reported on the Wisconsin State Journal web site.

Putting it into Perspective

I have a quick question I wanted to throw out there. I calculated my personal carbon footprint to be about 4,827,946 grams CO2 per year or 1,316,712 grams of C per year. I guess what I was wondering is if someone could put these numbers into some sort of perspective for me. (They really don't mean anything to me in that format.) I don't know if you could give me an idea how many, I don't know, maybe Lambeau Fields this would fill or something, just so I could get a general idea. Thanks!

How to Break Up a Long Post

Hi All,

If you look in the formatting palette that runs across the top of the box--like the one I'm typing in now--you'll see (at the far right side) an icon of a sheet of paper with a rip across it.  When you get to a point in your post that you want to break (you can do this after you've hit "Preview" and decided on a spot, then closed "Preview" to return to the text box), you put the cursor at the point you want the break.  Then you click on that icon.  You'll see a line appear across the text box.  You can just hit "publish post" at that point, or of course you can always hit "preview" again.  Of course you can also delete these.

Request for Info on Posting

I noticed someone or other figured out how to put a "Continued" at the bottom of posts to link a snippet to the full post and prevent so much space from being taken up. Could whoever did that post how they did it? I tried for ages to figure it out, and never did discover the secret.

Class Log 2/15/2010

Dr. Jim Phillips visited our class today. He reviewed concepts from basic chemistry:

-Chemical Equations: Hydrocarbon Combustion
-Dimensional Analysis (Conversion factors)
-Chemical Mass Balance

He also provided on-the-spot chemical mass balancing exercises (with hydrocarbons and their respective equations) and dimensional analysis conversions for students to try out.

**On Wednesday students will account for what happens when they add energy into the hydrocarbon combustion equation. After this is completed, Dr. Phillips will teach students how to calculate their own individual basic carbon inventories using the following information (don't forget to bring this info to class!):

(1) utility bill
(2) estimate of miles driven/taken by bus
(3) estimate of caloric intake in a day.

"The Curse of Akkad": Question for the Class

When Kolbert ends section I of Field Notes by reporting on a conversation with biologist Chris Thomas, she has directed our attention toward the future.  "Part of it simply is," Thomas says, "we've got one planet, and we are heading it in a direction that . . . we don't know what the consequences are going to be."  As we turn from that sobering conclusion and flip the page that reads "Part II Man," we find that Kolbert is asking us to look to a past that is 4300 years distant.  Comment on your experience of reading the chapter and--perhaps--how your reactions to her choice changed as you read.

CNT 2008 Survey

I just want to remind you all to look at the transportation portion of the survey that I sent out via e-mail to the class distribution list. I have a few questions for you to think about/discuss:

• What are your thoughts about the questions for last year?
• After looking at the Clean Air Cool Planet Carbon Calculator (CACPCC) what information do we need to enter in?
• What information is viable to get?
• What can we do this time around to make it easier?
• Can we get better results?

*Feel free to discuss the balance between many questions (more questions=increased information) and time it takes a survey taker to complete (more time=decreased responses).

Syracuse Survey

The Syracuse Survey serves as a nice, shallow outline for questions that we may want to ask. If you open the document itself, (which is a Word Document,) take a look at number 17; Liv and I believe that is the best question/comment section. Question 17 gets right at the idea of improvement: How can we increase the use of alternative transportation?

I Made It

Hey Everyone.....

I finally figured out how to join this crazy BLOG!

Biofuels on campus

Check out the great work being done by Facilities in slowly moving away from coal on campus! I know this is a topic (and a really difficult challenge) still ahead of us yet, but it's never too soon to send thanks where it's due. To all of us, this represents a reduction in CO2, mercury and sulfuric acid entering the atmosphere on our behalf. It also reduces the amount of mountain-top coal mining in the eastern portion of our nation.

Class Log 2/10/2010

Is it possible for someone to be connected to a place and not feel a responsibility towards it and the surrounding world? We began today's discussion by reading from Kolbert, page 60, and discussing how little people in America today tend to notice the world around them. There are certainly exceptions, such as the Citizen Science Center at Beaver Creek Reserve, but the spread of cities has made it really difficult for people to make connections with specific places, as has been common at other times and places.

From there, we dove into the transportation section of 2008 CNT report.

Suggestions for Questions

Because the University of Pennsylvania didn't have a sample survey available, I came up with some questions based on the medium-impact recommendations (p. 44-46). You can probably infer that the answers would be of the format very likely, somewhat likely, no opinion, somewhat unlikely, very unlikely (or the like, whatever fits in). Here they are:

Portland State University

I thought Portland State University's campus commuter survey was fairly good. I like how they allowed people to choose different ways to commute on different days because often times a student's schedule is different on different days, which could affect how they commute. I think it is interesting that they had survey takers tell how they commuted each day last week. I am wondering if this would give you accurate results or not, since they asked about a specific week and not how people commute in general. I think it is also good to ask what benefits would encourage the survey takers to try alternatives to commuting alone. I also think it is a good idea to have a spot for people to comment on PSU transportation. It was different for them to ask for the survey taker's address. I do not really understand the purpose. Overall, I thought this survey had some very good points for us to consider when doing our survey.

Northeastern Illinois University Commuter Survey

I thought NEIU's commuter survey was decent and provided the university with some information regarding commuter tendencies. It began with a introduction explaining the contents of the survey and what the results were going to be used for. The introduction could have been a little more professionally phrased, but for the most part it served its purpose.

The first page of the survey consisted of demographic questions. I feel that it would be better to put this information at the end of the survey to signal that it was coming to an end and also to keep any "sensitive" questions at the end, so as not to discourage people from completing the survey. (some people may view demographic questions as "sensitive")

Stout's Campus Commuter Survey

Since we didn't quite get to talk about it in class today, I'll post some of Heather and my thoughts on Stout's survey here. If you want to take a look at the survey yourself the title to this is a link to it. The survey is on the last few pages of the document.

One important thing that Stout did was to separate seasonal and non-seasonal commuters. I think we should also find a way to make sure that changes in commuting due to weather are taken into account. Stout may have taken it too far though by also breaking it down to two month periods. While I would love to get that exact, looking at their results brings up some problems. Since this survey will only be answered by a relatively small percentage of students, it is important that we have a large enough random sample to be able to represent the whole campus. I don't remember the exact calculations to find this amount but in some of their questions Stout had less than 50 respondents. We need to make sure we have enough respondents before extrapolating the data to represent the campus as a whole.

Question for Dr. Boulter

Dr. Boulter (or anyone else who may have an answer to share),

Last week, I came up with a question concerning the reading in the Climate Change: Picturing the Science book. In chapter 1 on page 26, the book mentions the shrinking of the stratosphere due to it's decrease in temperature. My first question is what is causing the stratosphere to get cooler? My only guess is that it's on the outside of the "blanket" of emissions that is trapping the heat. Second, is there any risk that comes with having a smaller, denser stratosphere? The book jokingly says, "Chicken Little might not have approved," but that's not reassuring to me.

Thank you.

Willamette University Campus Commuter Survey

Just a few comments about the Willamette Campus Commuter Survey since we didn't get to it in class.

The survey is extremely short (only 7 questions) which provides both advantages and disadvantages. Having a short survey probably increases the number of people that will be willing to take it, but by severely limiting the number of questions, such as the Willamette survey did, I can’t imagine that the results would be very thorough and conclusive.

One particular aspect of the survey that I thought was good was that they asked for distance from school, days commuting per week, and weeks commuting per year, all separately. I think that this makes the survey easier for the person taking it because, at least in my opinion, it is much easier for to estimate these amounts than to estimate the total number of miles driven for the entire year.

As far as improvements go, it would be nice if they had included a section for suggestions regarding the commuter situation on their campus and also if the survey had differentiated between seasons.

Hej från Sverige!

Greetings CNT 2010! I hope you are all as excited as I was when we began the carbon inventory two years ago. It was certainly an eye opening experience for me, and I am excited to see the improvements your fresh points of view will bring to this iteration of the project. While I am disappointed that I won’t have a chance to be doing any hands on with you, I can’t say I am disappointed to be here in Växjö.

Often called the “The Greenest City in Europe” (a title given to it by the BBC and adopted by over 500 other media organizations), Växjö has been making strides for several years to cut its carbon footprint and become more sustainable. I can see the efforts that are being made all over. However, they are often so well integrated they are not terribly obvious. The first thing that really stuck out to me was all the bikes.

I arrived in the city on a cold snowy night and when I got off the train there were people biking on the main street in the city center, right there with all the cars. The weather here is very similar to Wisconsin and as I am typing right now there are still people biking past me through the snowy campus mall. The bicycle parking on campus is abundant and often covered. Even though nearly all of the University’s 15,000 students live on campus, there are very few parking lots for cars. Walking along the lake into the city center people from youth to retirement age, men and women, all bike past. When I discovered the statistic that, as of 2006, 40 percent of households in Växjö didn’t own cars, I wasn’t too surpised.

Reading Kolbert . . . .

Field Notes' fourth chapter, "The Butterfly and the Toad," ends Kolbert's first section, "Nature."  Please feel free to post questions or comments on that chapter.

I've been continuing to think about media coverage of global climate change.  If you click on the title to this post, it will take you to an article "Environmental Journalism in the Greenhouse Era: Looking for Climate News beyond Corporate Media."  Check it out.  It provides some vital information as we consider how media in our country cover this urgent topic--and as we decide where to turn for factual reporting by experts.

Critique the news story!

Hey all, if you missed the article on the 6:00 news on ABC, channel 18, follow the link (click on the title to this blog post above) to the WQOW website, the local ABC affiliate, and you can either read the story or view it online.

This would a great way to start off your (yes, all the students') comments on the blog, critiquing my first on-air television interview! Please let me know what you liked and didn't like, as it relates to what we're talking about right now! (I have a few ideas of my own too, so I won't mind...)

And while you're there, check out another short bit on a new student movement on campus (part of the Conservationists club) to build a petition campaign to eliminate coal as a fuel in the campus steam plant. This is a critical issue for the carbon footprint, and so congratulations to them and their efforts. This issue is so big and will be difficult to accomplish, despite a lot of good progress from the folks at Facilities already. So having everybody (students, staff, administration, community) on board is good, especially if we can work together toward this long-term goal that I think we can all agree would be a huge step forward for UWEC.

P.S. Here's the link to the other story...


Now, in REAL climate news, I understand that the groundhog didn't see his shadow today - what's that mean for climate policy?!?

News 18 tonight!

It looks like I'll be on the news this evening, answering questions about my response to a press release from WI Sen. Grothman (R). I just did a (surprise - hadn't even shaved!) on-camera interview with Kevin Keen from News 18, talking about carbon footprints, climate vs. weather, coal on campus and probably some other topics I can't even recall right now. Since these are the key ideas we'll be discussing in our class over the next semester, the timing was great!

(It's one thing to get up in front of a class several meters away - quite another to have a camera in your face!)

So watch for me - let me know how I did... See you on Friday!

Class Log (2/1/2010)

Today we discussed the Preface and Chapter 1 of Elizabeth Kolbert's book Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change.

We began by discussing the preface, which dealt with Kolbert's experience at the Hotel Arctic, overlooking the flow of icebergs just off the coast of Greenland. To the average American tourist, this sight is incredible. To the European or scientist, this is a scary sight. The Jakobshavn Isbræ is moving at incredible speeds. One of the many illustrations of how global climate change is affecting the environment.

From the beginning passage, the reader understands that the book has a purpose. Kolbert carefully chooses language she writes in order to set up an engaging narrative for the reader. The places and people she writes about could have been anyone from anywhere, regardless the story remains the same: we are on the brink of a turning point in human history where we are beginning to see noticeable changes. All of these different places are just snapshots of the entire story. The idea is alluded to that though humanity can easily cross the threshold, crossing back is nearly impossible. There is a parallel to be drawn to our class as well. We are going for a journey with the scientists and other people around campus to piece together the story at Eau Claire.

ACUPCC, UWEC, the CNT, and Me

Today, Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich presented on a variety of topics. Most important of these was the reasons that he signed the American College and University President's Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). The Chancellor saw that the ACUPCC's goals for sustainability coincided with university visions for the future and current initiatives already in place. Opportunities, such as the construction of a new Davies Center, the desire to decrease energy consumption, increased faculty-student collaborative research projects, and increasing awareness of the Clean Commute Initiative (CCI) were among some of the reasons that were cited this morning. Chancellor Levin-Stankevich briefly mentioned the financial aspects as well as a means to help change student, faculty, and staff behavior on the UW-Eau Claire campus.

This multi-disciplinary collaborative effort to quantify the carbon emissions from campus is a great experience. It is an opportunity for you to bring your experiences from your respective disciplines in order to tackle this relevant societal issue. Achieving carbon neutrality, as our Chancellor has pledged, is a delicate process. This was illustrated by the wide range of visitors we had today in class. Dr. Jim Boulter, Dr. Kim Pierson, Dr. Jim Phillips, and Lynn Peterson are among the dozens of people on our campus collaborating to make this happen.

With that being said, I wanted to share a bit about my experience with the Carbon Neutral Team (CNT) and our document you were handed today in class. As a member of the first team to calculate the carbon emissions inventory for our campus, I experienced first hand some of the problems and rewards that are in your future over the next fifteen weeks.

A Great Start!

Thanks to Chancellor Levin-Stankevich for spending such a generous amount of time with us at this morning's class, and for helping us see where our work fits in the bigger picture of campus life--not to mention life beyond campus.  

And thanks also to Professors Boulter, Pierson, Phillips, and to Lynn Peterson for taking the time to meet with us today!  As I'm sure you could tell, each of these persons brings enthusiasm and commitment to their work here at UW-Eau Claire.  We are very fortunate to receive the gift of their support for this semester's important work. 

Speaking of support . . . . I think a little later today you'll be seeing a post here from Robyn Fennig, CNT 2008 member and now CNT 2010's advisor/mentor.