Tomorrow, colleges and universities across the nation will be observing "Campus Sustainability Day." This is JMU's first time participating in the event, and they intend to "trash" our campus in order to make an impression on students. Does this sound like an oxymoron? Probably. For those of you who have not heard about this event, allow me to explain.
According to JMU's website, tomorrow at 9:00 am, three dumpsters full of trash (taken from UREC, a faculty building, and a dorm) will be unloaded on the steps of ISAT. Then, students from JMU EARTH, JMU Recycling, the Institute for Stewardship of the Natural World, and health classes will sort through all of the garbage to determine how much of what was thrown away could have been recycled. The results will also be compared based on which location each dumpster came from.
This event is kicking off JMU's waste reduction effort, which is one of the main areas of sustainability that JMU is focusing on as part of the American College and University President's Climate Commitment that President Rose signed earlier this year.
This is just another example of how the environmental movement is impacting JMU and in turn, how JMU is contributing to the environmental movement by encouraging students to adopt lifestyles that contribute to sustainability. So, if you're not doing anything tomorrow between 9:00-11:00, make plans to stop by ISAT and witness this "trashy" event.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
JMU's 2nd "No Drive Day" coming up this Wednesday, Oct. 15th
The JMU Clean Energy Coalition, Shenandoah Bicycle Company, and JMU's Institute for the Stewardship of the Natural World are sponsoring the 2nd annual "No Drive Day" this coming Wednesday.
Here are some interesting stats from last year's event (taken from the JMU website):
During No Drive Day last year:
-From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., traffic on campus was reduced by 7.7 percent.
-2,801 fewer vehicles navigated campus than on an average day.
-Transit ridership increased by 14.06 percent.
-Five tons of carbon dioxide were saved from entering the atmosphere.
Obviously, I believe this is a great cause and encourage everyone to participate!
More information on this initiative can be found here.
Here are some interesting stats from last year's event (taken from the JMU website):
During No Drive Day last year:
-From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., traffic on campus was reduced by 7.7 percent.
-2,801 fewer vehicles navigated campus than on an average day.
-Transit ridership increased by 14.06 percent.
-Five tons of carbon dioxide were saved from entering the atmosphere.
Obviously, I believe this is a great cause and encourage everyone to participate!
More information on this initiative can be found here.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Radical groups and their effect on other social movement organizations
Recently, we read an article for class titled "Earth First! and the Rhetoric of Moral Confrontation," written by Brant Short. I was personally not familiar with Earth First! before reading this article, but I learned that this radical group uses extreme (and often illegal) measures such as "placing metal spikes in trees to prevent logging, pulling up survey stakes on land development sites, vandalizing machinery, and sitting in trees that are scheduled for timber harvesting." The founders of Earth First! split with the mainstream environmental movement, accusing its members of being too "soft," and "selling out" to political agendas or personal motives. Today's mainstream environmental groups fear that Earth First!'s tactics will hurt the overall environmental movement by causing the public to associate all environmentalist causes with radical environmentalism.
The author also uses Earth First! as an example of how agitation and confrontation can be important rhetorical tools for a social movement. Now, I would like to make it clear that while I consider myself to be very pro-environment, I am by no means a radical environmentalist, and definitely do not support the tactics that are employed by Earth First! However, it is interesting to consider how Earth First! can actually help the larger environmental movement. First, the radical group's controversial policies bring publicity to the concerns that the movement is aiming to address. Secondly, by creating a counter-response, these radical extremists make other pro-environment groups, such as Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, etc., seem much more moderate/rational in the agendas they set and the actions they take in order to preserve the environment.
Short's ideas on rhetoric can be applied not only to environmental groups, but to social movement organizations of all types. No matter what the cause, if a radical movement develops from a larger, but more moderate movement, the publicity they attract will reflect back to the moderate group. Thus, the larger movement will be given an opportunity to counter the radical agenda with a more rational one that the public will be more likely to support.
The author also uses Earth First! as an example of how agitation and confrontation can be important rhetorical tools for a social movement. Now, I would like to make it clear that while I consider myself to be very pro-environment, I am by no means a radical environmentalist, and definitely do not support the tactics that are employed by Earth First! However, it is interesting to consider how Earth First! can actually help the larger environmental movement. First, the radical group's controversial policies bring publicity to the concerns that the movement is aiming to address. Secondly, by creating a counter-response, these radical extremists make other pro-environment groups, such as Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, etc., seem much more moderate/rational in the agendas they set and the actions they take in order to preserve the environment.
Short's ideas on rhetoric can be applied not only to environmental groups, but to social movement organizations of all types. No matter what the cause, if a radical movement develops from a larger, but more moderate movement, the publicity they attract will reflect back to the moderate group. Thus, the larger movement will be given an opportunity to counter the radical agenda with a more rational one that the public will be more likely to support.
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