Maryland Students Call For Carbon Neutral Schools

Photo by Annie Sanders

A group of Maryland college students is calling on the University System of Maryland to become carbon neutral. The Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC), formed this October, has been collecting signatures to deliver to the Board of Regents, along with a policy outlining how the 11-school system can slash pollution and offset global warming emissions with green technologies. Chancellor William Kirwan has indicated that environmental initiatives will be among his top priorities over the next few years. The student coalition's plan would start by conducting an energy audit of the entire system.

This fall, the coalition joined with the Sierra Club's Maryland Chapter and members of the state's Episcopal Diocese in urging state politicians to take a "radical approach" to global warming. Holding signs urging action, the groups held a press conference in Baltimore, where they called on Governor Martin O'Malley to reduce greenhouse emissions by 80 percent by 2050, promote conservation, and dedicate transportation money to public transit. MSCC co-founders Erica Stout and Andrew Nazdin, undergrads at Towson University and the University of Maryland, respectively, are pictured above at that event. Both also sit on the executive committee of the Sierra Student Coalition.

"We no longer have the luxury of taking small steps," said Lee Walker-Oxenham of the Sierra Club's Howard County Group at the press conference. Learn more about clean energy and the Campus Climate Challenge.