By Dylan Cernoia | Observer Contributor
It’s an undeniable fact that climate change is a major issue facing us today and MWCC is making moves to help students learn how to better respect the environment.
MWCC has an entire club dedicated to the environment called the Green Society. President of the Green Society and MWCC student Christine Nelson talked about the club’s main goals saying “We aim to problem-solve. I love that the Mount has wind turbines and solar panels to reduce the school’s fossil fuel usage. But there is more we can do for the environment.”
The club has several upcoming projects including their “Purge the Plastic” campaign which will aim to reduce the plastics used on campus. “Plastic never leaves our environment—it may break down into smaller pieces, but it never decomposes like other materials,” said Nelson. The new campaign will aim to sell free compostable water bottles. If you want to do more than buy a water bottle the club meets on Thursdays at 12:30 in the greenhouse on the Gardner campus.
“There are lots of effects that global warming has,” said professor Tom Montagno. “Some of the more obvious effects are rising sea levels and an increase in temperatures. Those are the two main effects that cascade down to lower effects.” The rising sea levels are caused by the melting of the polar ice caps which, as they begin to melt, destroy the habitat of many arctic animals but also causes other low areas like Florida to flood more often.
As the temperatures rise it causes the ocean itself to become more acidic which will affect ocean life and also cause hurricanes to become worse because “warm water fuels a hurricane,” said Montagno. One of the main contributors to these rising temperatures is greenhouse gasses which an article by the BBC found that the US was the second largest contributor of greenhouse gasses topped only by China.
MWCC has always put being “green” high on the list of priorities. President James Vander Hooven said, “There has been a long history of visionary leaders who have known the importance of being green. Both inside and outside the classroom and to our entire operational plant, MWCC has had this focus on being good stewards of our community and environment.” Vander Hooven added that even when MWCC undertakes new construction projects they attempt to make them as environmentally friendly as possible.
At MWCC.edu, there is a page devoted to sustainability and the campus’ history of converting to more environmentally friendly methods. The school saves a total of $134,000 per year thanks to the many green energy sources on campus compared to the almost $750,000 that the campus was spending on electricity in the 1990s, according to the website.
Vander Hooven also said that in the coming months there will be a new campus-wide initiative announced. “Going green is extremely important to me for lots of reasons,” said Vander Hooven. “Foremost in my mind is the planet I am leaving for our children.”
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