
You’re leaving home for the morning, making sure you remembered to feed Rufus and bring that English term paper due in the afternoon. But did you remember to switch off the lights? Did you turn down the thermostat? Did you shut off your computer?
These are just a few of the things Garry Running, geography and anthropology department chair, recommends for individuals to decrease their ecological footprint, or environmental impact.
“It’s important to minimize our impact by any means,” junior biology major Mitchell Banach said. “There’s much more to be done. We absolutely have to start working towards solutions. . If we procrastinate and leave it to someone else, it probably won’t get done.”
A person’s ecological footprint calculates how many planets our civilization would need if everyone on Earth lived with that person’s lifestyle.
Associate professor of chemistry James Phillips said his students report ecological footprints ranging from five to 15 planets. Ecological footprints can be calculated at myfootprint.org.
“I don’t think anyone has made the connection between consumption and environmental degradation,” he said. “We need to slow down.”
The only way to correct environmental degradation is through lifestyle adjustments, something Phillips said is “daunting to think about,” since materialism is “absolutely ingrained in our entire mindset as Americans.”
Running said the process to ending the conspicuous consumption in American society is to seriously consider whether individual purchases are necessities.
“How about we switch from the ‘more is better, bigger is better’ attitude so pervasive today to an attitude where better is better and enough is enough,” Running said.
No matter how green the product is, Running said every time a product is not consumed, an entire chain of consumption – and the unnecessary harvest of raw materials – is eliminated.
Humans have a natural tendency not to see these hidden costs of their actions until the effects of global warming appear, such as crop failure and warmer and more erratic weather, said Crispin Pierce, environmental public health professor and faculty liaison for The Conservationists.
“I think it’s a sad phenomenon,” he said. “I think about it a lot.”
Running said students often fail to recognize how significantly they affect the environment. Arriving at UW-Eau Claire with 18 years of active consuming already behind them, now is the time for students to make positive changes to their lifestyle, he said.
“Every decision people make, no matter how trivial they seem, have an environmental price tag,” Running said. “If every once in a while we make a greener decision, those every-once-in-a-whiles really add up.”
Pierce said Eau Claire students are a “great, caring group,” but sometimes do not think about the environmental impact their decisions make. With a little bit of awareness, he said, students would be willing “to make a difference and feel like they’re a part of something good.”
Education and raising environmental awareness are the UWEC Conservationists’ goals for Be Green Week, the week prior to Earth Day, president and junior Katie Flehmer said.
The Eau Claire Community Earth Day Celebration takes place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Earth Day, April 21, at Phoenix Park, downtown by the RCU building.
Flehmer said The Conservationists have various campus activities planned for Be Green Week to “nudge people to think more along the green line.”
What is this ‘green line’?
Senior Corey Van Sickle first became aware of his influence on the environment as a freshman in Conservation of the Environment. Since then he said he began walking to school, keeping heat as low as he can stand, eating as little beef as possible and shutting his computer off when he is not home.
Van Sickle said though education is helpful in igniting concern in the population, it is ultimately a personal decision to prioritize the environment.
Flehmer agreed.
“You should try to find ways to live with a world view instead of living (conveniently),” she said.
Flehmer said it is especially challenging for on-campus students to think consciously of their energy-consuming habits since they do not directly pay for them. Still, turning off lights and recycling go a long way, she said.
She also recommends buying reusable “green bags” to bring along when grocery shopping rather than accumulating plastic bags. These bags are available at ecobags.com.
Never discard old cell phones, which release dangerous toxins such as cadmium and mercury into soil in landfills, Flehmer said. Cell phones can be recycled for free through recyclemycellphone.org.
A vegetarian himself, Pierce recommends eating fewer meat products and more grains and vegetables. Since animals also demand resources from the environment, meat requires up to 30 times more energy to produce than plants, he said.
Banach unplugs his appliances when they are not in use to prevent phantom overloads, when electricity surges even though the machine is off. He recommends using power strips for convenience.
Running recommends switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs. Though they are slightly more expensive than incandescent bulbs, they are more cost effective over the long term, he said. Regular incandescent bulbs need to be replaced twice a year, while compact fluorescent bulbs last up to five years and require less energy.
Running also said sealing windows with plastic wrap “works like a charm” to reduce drafts and heating bills. He said the kits cost about $10 at local hardware stores and take about two hours to install.
Gov. Jim Doyle made an executive order in November 2005 to maintain a maximum temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit in occupied buildings. As a result, Facilities Planning & Management have kept temperatures in campus buildings below the limit, associate director Derold Schubert said. However, he said temperatures vary from dorm to dorm and it is difficult to monitor individual room temperatures unless students make complaints.
Pierce said he encourages students to contact Facilities Planning & Management if dorm rooms are too warm and energy could be saved by lowering the thermostat.
“As we are more conservative with energy, we have cleaner air, cleaner water and lower bills,” he said.
Van Sickle said everyone will eventually have to become more conscious of the environment and the effects of leaving lights on and excessive driving.
“Eventually energy costs are going to get high enough that everyone is going to have to use less,” he said.