MTV and the Campus Climate Challenge have teamed up to begin a new environmental campaign called Break the Addiction. The campaign is designed to educate students on global warming and to challenge them to find ways to stop it.
“We want to empower youth and college students to fight global warming on campus by educating students about solutions and passing clean energy policies that will serve as models for society,” said Tom Owens, Virginia campus coordinator for the Chesapeake Climate Effort.
The Campus Climate Challenge is set up through the Energy Action Coalition, a conglomeration of more than 30 leading youth organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada.
MTV became affiliated with the campaign, and, in the fall, will reward five schools across the nation that have gathered enough media usage to publicize their solutions to global warming. In the spring, two schools will be recognized for having achieved a 100 percent clean energy policy.
Finally, at the end of the following year MTV will recognize the schools that did the best job of organizing their Campus Climate Challenge. These schools must have passed strong policies to reduce global warming pollution and educate the student body about the problem.
The winning campus will receive monetary support for their on-going efforts to an “eco-renovation” that is valued at $10,000 as well as a chance to be in an MTV news segment.
According to a recent poll, many students know what global warming is, its causes and the harm it can do to the world. What they don’t know is that global warming can be prevented and stopped.
In another poll conducted by MTV and CBS, students across the nation said that the environment is the most important problem our generation will have to deal with. About 81 percent of those polled stated that people should take measures immediately to stop this world crisis.
“Global warming is the defining challenge of our generation,” said Angella De Soto, junior environmental policy and planning major and student coordinator of Tech’s Campus Climate Challenge group. “We should learn to do something now while we are in this incredible learning environment.”
The proposal for the MTV campaign goes into effect on Dec. 1. It consists of three pillars: economics, ecology, and creativity. The group at Tech will be working with engineers, architects and others of various majors to develop the best proposal possible. This ties in with Tech’s Campus Climate Challenge, which is starting off slowly because of the attempt to pass a green fee. The green fee is a current campaign on campus that is in the process. The fee, which will be $6 or less, will be added to a student’s tuition, and will go towards increasing energy efficiency on campus and restarting the recycling programs that used to exist on campus. A specific board that will deal with the money gained from the green fee. The green fee will be proposed on October 1st.
There are two main branches to Tech’s Campus Climate Challenge campaign. The first is education. This branch is supposed to educate peers across campus about global warming. “Not many have had their questions answered” De Soto said. “Through education of peers Tech has the opportunity to the green leader university in Virginia.” The second branch deals with formulating policies. Students will work with administrators to figure out steps they can take to end global warming. Finally, there is also a smaller branch of the campaign that deals with research of looking into what other schools are doing to battle this crisis, and to further develop strategies and policies that will help end global warming.
While students may want to become involved in the MTV campaign, it is only a proposal and there is already a group on campus that is working on it. However, all students are highly encouraged to join the efforts in the Campus Climate Challenge. To get involved, contact Angella De Soto at adesoto@vt.edu.
The Chespeake Climate Action Network will be holding a state wide youth energy summit at William and Mary on November 3-5. All students across the state are invited to attend. “We will address the problems of the environment left to us by the older generation” Josh Tulkin, organizing director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said.
Students at Tech are interested in MTV’s approach toward battling global warming. “I think its a wonderful idea. They take a huge aspect of teenage life, a TV channel, and use it as a political tool, teaching people who watch to find alternatives to help the environment” Jacob Vuiller, a freshman Spanish major, said.
|
|
|
