Blog Action Day: The Psychology of Climate Change and a Green Rutgers

“One day, One issue, Thousands of Voices”

Today is Blog Action Day and I am proud to participate. Right now all over the world, Bloggers are writing about climate change. By reading this, I consider you a participant too, so thanks for reading. Let’s get started!

We live in a world with an unfortunately profuse amount of issues. They seem to enter my consciousness like trends. One day it’s the health care crisis, the next it’s gay marriage, then it’s the genocide in Darfur, and so on. It was not until last week in my Psychology of Marketing class that my thoughts turned back to climate change, or as it was formerly known, Global Warming.

In the class, we watched a PBS show called “Frontline: The Persuaders” about today’s new, shocking, and scary methods of advertising. A man named Frank Luntz, of the Luntz Research Companies, appeared on the special. Luntz is a word wizard, he figures out what consumers want to hear, and tells his clients. According to the special, Luntz worked with “some of the most prominent Republican politicians of the last decade.” Under the advisement of Luntz, the Grand Old Party stopped using the words “Global Warming” and started calling the same phenomenon “Climate Change.” The TV show runs tapes of Senator James Inhofe, Senator John Kerry, former Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, Former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Former President George W. Bush all using the new terminology.

I have a problem with this. Our leaders should try to emphasize the severity of the situation, not try to minimize the issue. According to A Report by the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change “concern about adverse consequences of climate change (e.g., extreme weather events like droughts or floods) is low on average in places such as the United States, in part because small probability events tend to be underestimated in decisions based on personal experience, unless they have recently occurred, in which case they are vastly overestimated” (page 6).  Since we tend to judge the world by our own, and our nearby peers’, experiences, many people do not understand the imminent threat of climate change. Marketing the increasing temperatures of earth as “climate change” instead of “global warming” does not help get the message across either!

 Global warming may sound scary, but global warming/climate change is scary. If scaring people will lead them to reduce their carbon footprint, maybe we should make sure the cold truths of climate change are heard by all. As the ice caps melt, the sea levels rise, extreme weather happenings grow more frequent, we cannot shy away from the problem. Global Warming will only worsen.

I am happy to mention that Rutgers Camden and Rutgers as a whole is making new, important efforts to curb the school’s carbon footprint, thus reducing green house gas emissions, the cause of global warming.  I will focus my writing on Rutgers Camden because there is so much going on to help conserve energy at all of the campuses.

Ironically, yesterday was the Rutgers Recycling Kickoff party. I started the day by finding a recycling bin in my suite. It was pretty exciting!

Then NJPIRG, New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, set up a table in front of the residence halls and started giving out tours of the new green dorms. I couldn't make a tour because I went to a Jewish Student Union meeting, but I did grab some t-shirts.

By the time I returned from the JSU meeting it was dark, but the Recyling Kickoff party had begun! Free food (including cupcakes with green icing) was eaten, music was danced to, and bamboo plants were taken to new homes. It was quite the party, but the greening, per say, of Rutgers is an ongoing process. This morning I saw gardeners planting flowers outside of the Residence Halls. I couldn't take a picture because I was running late to Biology class. But here's a small picture that does not do the party justice:

When I contacted Rutgers Camden to inform me about their efforts to reduce climate change, they put me in touch with Associate Dean Nathan Levinson. He sent me a great list of current Green initiatives on campus:

"

• New receptacles made of recycled wood that clearly designate recyclables and trash (currently in place)
• Commingled recycling ability for the entire campus (in place).  Meaning that paper, alumninum, glass and plastic can be dumped in one receptacle and will be sorted by our trash hauling service.
• Administrative efforts to enforce recycling within all offices on campus (BSB is already engaged in this effort)
• Purchasing of copy machines that are Energy Star rated and provide scanning abilities.  This includes color copiers which use the latest technology that saves literally tons of chemicals and non-recyclable parts.
• Promoting the use of online course management tools (SAKAI) versus passing out paper handouts.
• Using the monitors now in every building on campus to promote student events versus posters and flyers.
• All renovations efforts will be evaluated for the use of sustainable and recycled products (paint, carpet, furniture, efficient lighting, double pane windows, insulation, etc).
• Examine the changing of outdoor lighting to LED lights to save energy.
• Rutgers has been provided monies from the Federal stimulus package to use for the enhancement of lighting fixtures to provide for energy efficiencies.
• We hope in the future to have solar panels on some building to provide a localized energy source.
• We are working with the City of Camden to provide initiatives to engage in cooperatives whereby we can assist local agencies in sharing in our purchase power for recycled, reused and environmentally friendly products.
• Rutgers-Camden will take part in Recyclemania – a competition of over 200 universities and colleges to promote recycling – for the 2^nd year running.  This competition starts January 17^th – March 27th"

Note: I found out too little too late that a Professor Emeritus at Rutgers Camden, William Lutz, is an expert on double speak and plain language. Perhaps as a follow up to this post I will try to interview him on the Psychology of Climate Change.