Commentary:Environmental activism not merely trendy

By Andrea Dinneen     3/27/08 7:00pm

Whether you are for it or against it, there is no denying that over the last year Rice has gotten noticeably more eco-conscious. In the past year alone, the Rice Thresher has published 39 articles related to environmental issues, compared to 13 the year before. Student groups on campus have organized everything from anti-coal protests to a North vs. South College energy competition, and even Rice's administration got in on the act by requiring all entering freshmen to read the environmentally-focused text, Field Notes from a Catastrophe. Despite environmentalism's apparent popularity on campus, many students have nevertheless begun to lash out against environmental, particularly climate-change centered, activism. These students argue that global climate change has become the "cool issue" for our generation to care about and that environmental activists are more concerned with following a fad than trying to create real change.Before I address the issue of activists' sincerity, I want to begin by dispelling the conception that climate change itself is a fad. For one thing, those advocating carbon dioxide reduction policies are not doing so based on a whim or on minimal scientific evidence. In fact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the hundreds of scientists it represents have been studying climate change since the United Nations convened the body in 1988. Furthermore, simply searching "global warming" on Google brings up 46 million responses, which makes it hard to argue that global warming is a new or understudied field.

Even on the Rice campus, student groups aimed at fighting climate change have not acted rashly or in a "crazy, fad-like" manner. One of the most controversial items to come before the Student Assocation this year was a bill asking the SA senators to put a referendum on the election ballot that would allow students to vote on creating a renewable energy fund to install solar panels across campus. The bill sought to help Rice start using a portion of renewable energy. While it may have looked like the referendum was just thrown together to outsiders, it was actually the product of a year-and-a-half of work. The SA Environmental Committee met with the City of Houston to see how how the city switched to 50 percent wind energy and worked closely with Rice's own Facilities, Engineering and Planning staff. This thought-out research is hardly characteristic of shallow, fad-obsessed zealots.

The last point I want to make is that criticizing those involved in the environmental movement as insincere is just plain unhelpful. Oftentimes, people who are involved in environmentalism, political activism, religious groups or other causes are condemned for not being "true believers" and made to feel guilty for what they are able to do. This criticism is damaging and frustrating, as it produces nothing and discourages those who would like to make change. Characterizing environmentalism as a life-consuming commitment is what often scares people away from learning about social change. Like many other values, environmentalism does not need to be an all-or-nothing proposition. We should certainly be critical consumers of information, but there is nothing wrong with moderate environmentalism. If a typical Rice student tries to recycle, drive a little less and turn off the lights when she leaves a room, that is fine by me.

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One of the key reasons apathy infests many college campuses is that students who experiment with activism are immediately castigated for jumping on a bandwagon. These people start to feel fake and guilty about their attempts to incite change and eventually leave the cause they once felt strongly about feeling confused and upset. Personally, I want to retain the right to support a cause in whatever way possible. We all have limited time and resources, but that should not stop us from doing the little bit of good we can. The Rice campus would be a more exciting and open place if people were applauded for the time they took to understand and remedy an issue they felt strongly about.

Andrea Dinneen is a Sid Richardson College senior. Lauren Laustsen contributed to this column and is a Sid Richardson College senior and chair of the Student Association Environmental Committee.

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