True sustainability at IU

It’s common knowledge IU needs a sustainable campus to thrive in the decades to come.

However, the recently approved Integrated Energy Master Plan by the Board of Trustees, which allocates $82 million to repair, replace and build new infrastructure at IU to create “efficiency and environmental sustainability,” isn’t a sustainable path to the future.

It is, however, a threat to the accessibility of public education for future generations of Hoosiers. It’s a full-scale continuation of the use of non-renewable fossil fuels, which, according to an extensive United Nations study released this year, between now and 2030 could lead to 100 million deaths unless consumption is drastically reduced.  

In the face of this crisis, the Board of Trustees approved a sustainability plan for IU. Its goals are to encourage a “culture of energy conservation” to update the University’s steam pipe system and gradually replace IU’s reliance on coal with natural gas.

To the board’s credit, these are all actions geared toward conserving energy and emitting fewer greenhouse gases.

When taken in context, however, this plan is horrifically inept at preventing the human loss predicted for the next two decades.

For the business-minded, it also leaves the University unprepared for the economic loss our reliance on fossil fuels could soon bring. Based on the same U.N. study, our continued use of fossil fuels will lower global Gross Domestic Product by three to four percent by 2030 and will reduce consumption by 20 percent globally by 2050.

But, the 100 million people expected to die over the coming years could not care less about what an institution’s motives are for reducing its use of fossil fuels.

These people only care about their lives, which our inaction directly threatens.

And, it’s true the dire fate awaiting these victims — who will likely die because of hunger, polluted water and diseases caused by global warming — will not be subverted by one institution alone.

If the University decides to care about these victims, it could set an example by sacrificing its own short-term comfort for the sake of the many to come.

It could create a campus that not only renounces fossil fuels but is better prepared to withstand the global crisis ahead.

It would surely bring ground-breaking research and development grants to the University as a one-of-a-kind campus experiment and create a culture of shared sacrifice needed to prevented this human
catastrophe.

The University says it is committed to such a culture, one which could have profound effects.

That is why I ask you to contact Board of Trustees Chair William Cast and Student Trustee Cora Griffin to demand they research and propose an energy plan for IU that eliminates or severely reduces the use of fossil
fuels.

Let them know you will not tolerate inaction in the face of 100 million deaths, that you are prepared to tell your classmates, your professors and your network that donates to IU that this matter is urgent and that you intend to strike during their next meeting should they ignore your demand.

Email me for a template if you think you’ll have trouble writing a letter of your own, and please don’t wait any longer to give this issue your full attention.

­— tydthomp@indiana.edu