This is the final article of a four-part series detailing DU’s efforts to achieve a sustainable campus, considering past and present accomplishments. Now is the critical time to address global warming and the environmental issues that threaten to spiral into worse disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic. The university is held accountable by informed, engaged and passionate students.
Sustainability ought to be in the minds and habits of every human for a myriad of practical reasons, but its role as a catalyst for social justice is all too often underestimated. As a private university, home to a community fortunate enough to enjoy higher education, our efforts to achieve sustainability have a global impact.
The research conducted at DU promotes interdisciplinary cooperation and aspires to address global issues. The students exploring sustainability through clubs, organizations, internships and fields of study are promising leaders for a sustainable future. Sustainable practices on campus serve as a positive example for the local community and other universities.
Beyond academic contributions, DU is physically relevant to the global environment’s health. When the university works to produce its own sustainable energy with solar panels on campus, rather than continue to rely on fossil fuel-sourced energy, DU has lessened its contribution of globally harmful atmospheric carbon dioxide.
The privileged and the affluent must keep perspective in order to understand their responsibility for equitable global health, despite the temptation to use resources as a means of escaping the effects of global warming in the short-term. Humans are collectively responsible for global warming, but some regions and demographics are suffering from its consequences disproportionately.
Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC)—disenfranchised by schooling, the legal system, media, housing market and workforce— are often the first to suffer from the effects of global warming due to their living spaces, work environments and low incomes.
Vulnerable minorities and low-income families who can only afford properties in the floodplains are ravaged by the rising sea and extreme weather events like hurricanes. They have no choice but to risk losing their lives and belongings to the increased threat of environmental events.
White employees are more likely to enjoy the privilege of a high-earning, indoor, air-conditioned job, while minitorized manual laborers suffer from decreasing air quality and increasing temperatures. These conditions exacerbate respiratory illnesses, and heat-related deaths are on the rise.
Economic values are affected by scarcity, so when extreme weather events and floods destroy crops or disease destroys livestock, the minorities and low-income families are the first to suffer. Meanwhile the wealthy and privileged can afford properties clear of the floodplains, protective insurance, expensive food and air-conditioned lifestyles.
Global warming also disproportionately affects populations around the world based on geographical properties.
For example, Qatar experiences extreme warming because the peninsula protrudes from Saudi Arabia into the Persian Gulf. The Gulf’s temperature rapidly increases due to intense solar radiation in the area and surrounding deserts.
However, Qatar is an extremely wealthy country and able to air-condition its outdoor walkways and new soccer stadium. Other areas experiencing geographically-exacerbated heat are not so fortunate to be able to temporarily offset the consequences of global warming.
Anyone who looks beyond their desire for comfortability and has a worldwide view can see that humans have created a vicious cycle. We turn a blind eye to the negative effects that our destructive lifestyles have on the world and its vulnerable populations.
Unfortunately, many people have a difficult time forming environmentally-friendly habits or making lifestyle sacrifices. Global concerns do not tend to overpower our present and immediate desires. The divisive and political financial argument for sustainability has not been historically compelling.
Both unsustainable and sustainable practices have economic incentives, contrary to the misconception that sustainability is costly and destructive to the economy.
An example of unsustainable incentivization is the burning of millions of acres of Amazon rainforest for agricultural profits. Rainforests have rich and abundant vegetation, but nutrient-poor soil. The vegetation is burned to return nutrients to the soil for agriculture, but the nutrients are quickly depleted, making the practice unsustainable.
Renewable practices also have financial incentives. For example, there is a prevalence of “green collar jobs,” or workforce positions that improve environmental quality like bicycle repair, solar panel installation and repair, or recycling industry. Homeowners with solar panels can expect rebates or tax breaks. Additionally, if the sustainable energy industry received the same amount of government subsidies as fossil fuel energies, sustainable energy would be environmentally-friendly and affordable.
The economic pros and cons of environmental practices are complex and highly contentious, but sustainability holds the irrefutable argument that it embodies compassion, empathy, humanity, globality, equity and justice.
Sustainability will never be a priority if financial incentives are the utmost concern, as the economy is too complicated, political and querulous. A concern for higher values which transcend borders is the proper and unignorable motivation that will promise change.
People say they struggle to incorporate sustainable habits into their daily life, but COVID-19 is a global crisis that has demonstrated we are capable of change. Masks have been integrated into everyday life, and global warming warrants the same degree of unification and commitment.
Habituation to sustainable practices becomes easier with education and perspective, leading to selflessness, passion and action.
Chad King, the executive director for sustainability at DU, admirably recognizes the importance of social justice.
He wrote: “Sustainability solutions will not come without social justice. In order to address growing economic and educational disparities…we need all voices to be heard, beginning with those that have been marginalized for years, in order to build a coalition for action. Together, we may then address root systems and bring about necessary changes to the power structures that lead to injustice, inequity and an unsustainable future.”
A sustainable future will not happen without the prioritization of social justice. Prejudices, racism and nationalism are indoctrinations that contribute to self-centered destructivism and global warming.
