Founded as a sports conference, the Ivy League has long been host to competitions in athletics, academics and prestige. Now Ivy League schools may begin a race to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in response to the "All-Ivy Resolution in Support of Climate Neutrality" released at each school last Friday.
The resolution asserts the imminent distress of global warming and the "moral responsibility" of Ivy League institutions to allocate their resources and leader status towards ameliorative goals. Specifically, the resolution calls for the schools to meet a scientifically recommended 80 percent reduction of 1990 emissions levels by 2050 and to adopt climate neutrality, a policy of zero net greenhouse gas production where sustainability investments balance outputs.
Sustainable Dartmouth presented the resolution at the Top of the Hop between a showing of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and an open discussion-forum on Friday.
Sustainable Dartmuth members Ruth Hupart '08 and Ritchie King '06, who helped draft the resolution, presented the document's pledges and then allowed the audience to discuss its implementation. Questions arose regarding methods of enforcement, the document's ambiguity and how short-term actions will achieve the resolution's distant goals.
Although there would be no official enforcement, if students and the administration sign the resolution, the College's honor with the other Ivy Leagues would be at stake, according to Hupart. And, Hupart and King said they can count on the Ivy League's competitive nature to breed beneficial peer pressure.
King explained that Yale University recently proposed reducing emissions to ten percent of 1990 levels by 2020. Harvard University subsequently announced a goal of 11 percent.
"So the moral is we should go for 12," King joked.
Andrew Friedland, chair of the environmental studies department, suggested that the Ivies agree upon standards of competition, in order to play out this rivalry on a regulated field.
Hupart explained that the document's intentional ambiguity provides for schools' particularities. She said that they were "trying to be as general as possible for the whole Ivy League" and was impressed with the amount of cooperation. "It's hard enough working with the Harvard kids to get something out by deadline," she added.
The bulk of the discussion concerned what Dartmouth has done and could do next in line with the resolution's objectives. Mary Gorman, assistant provost and executive officer, explained that a new provost committee will study the College's energy use and how to phase in changes. It will address Dartmouth-specific challenges like off campus programs, old dormitories and food shipment.
Sustainability director Jim Merkel explained that the College will continue to invest in carbon offsets -- certificates that promise to fund sustainable activity ranging from researching alternative power to planting trees. However, King described the offset market as highly unregulated and vulnerable to scams.
The resolution also called for a newly planned life sciences building to shoot for a Leader in Energy and Efficiency "Gold Standard" -- an ambitious feat for an energy-swallowing laboratory.
Students offered suggestions for additional measures. Some bemoaned ineffectual ECO-reps, and recommended tacking the job onto undergraduate advisors' responsibilities.
