Go green for the kids

Three weeks ago, as the rest of the editorial board was working tirelessly on our third annual Green Issue, I was taking a holiday from The Campus — but not from the theme of sustainability. I was in Denver, Colo., attending the annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) along with two fellow Midd students and a handful of faculty. So while it was not my pleasure to help layout the incredible amount of high quality green content we received from many sectors of the College community, I did come home with new insight into how we can continue the conversation during the 23 issues of the year not dedicated to the environment. More than anything, however, the conference redoubled my commitment to protecting this planet and reinforced my feeling that our generation can — and must — be the ones to make the difference.

There’s an old Greek saying that goes “a society becomes great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never enjoy.” This characterizes perfectly my feelings on the importance of sustainability, and implicitly reveals the reason why it is such a difficult value to embrace and embody. We are all conditioned to believe that our resources are unlimited, and in some ways, they are: it is entirely possible that we will all reach the end of our lives unencumbered by the global resource crunch, and will never know the feeling of not having access to clean water, or having the oil reserves run dry. In that sense, to embrace sustainability is to unnecessarily deny ourselves the pleasures that we might otherwise enjoy until the end of our days.

But surely this is not an attitude of a forward thinking citizenry. Although I had often tried to articulate my feelings of responsibility toward future generations prior to the conference, one statistic I learned at AASHE gave me something firm to grasp on to: the United States represents 4.5 percent of the world population, and consumes 25 percent of the world’s resources. That is antithetical, in every way, to the idea of sustainability. With a quickly expanding world population, it is pure ignorance to think that America will be able to continue its absurd rate of consumption for as long as our planet exists. And for those of us planning on raising a family when we get older, it’s simply irresponsible to not consider the world our children will have to live in after we’re gone.

Seeing hundreds of like-minded individuals, both youth and adult, and hearing their passion come forth in panels and presentations in Denver was an inspiring and uplifting experience. For once, it felt like the fight for sustainability was a winnable one. But it will only succeed if that passion spreads — all citizens can make a difference, but it is crucial above all else that our generation take up the cause and get serious about living sustainably. Our parents’ generation has undoubtedly made the task harder for us, but they weren’t armed with nearly the level of information available to us about the direness of the situation and the ease with which anyone can make a difference. If we are unable to turn it around and decrease our consumption, the impoverished future populace will blame our generation. And they will be entirely justified in doing so.

As a nation, we have always celebrated the men and women of the armed services who risk their lives overseas to protect our quality of life now and in the future. We’re being asked to do something much, much easier. We don’t have to risk life and limb for the vitality of our descendents, just convenience and luxury. Let us be remembered as the generation who made the difference and turned the tides, not the generation who couldn’t be bothered to turn out the lights.