Environmental group sets goals for Pitt

At their second meeting of the semester Wednesday night, campus environmental group Free the… At their second meeting of the semester Wednesday night, campus environmental group Free the Planet unveiled their campaign goals for this semester.

The group, sponsored by the Environmental Studies Department, focuses on environmental issues that primarily affect Pitt’s campus – and to a lesser extent, Pittsburgh as a whole.

Co-president Emily Broich summarized the group’s top semester objective.

“What we’re trying to do this semester is collect signatures to reduce carbon emissions [at Pitt],” Broich said.

Broich said the petition, which will be made available to students at campus events, asks signatories to agree to the simple statement that Pitt should reduce its carbon emissions to zero. Once they have collected all 1,500 signatures, the group will take the petition to the administration to demonstrate campus solidarity for this objective.

But the petition is only the first step. In addition to handing the petition to the administration, group members are simultaneously working on other campaigns that would help Pitt make good on its promise – that is, if they agree to follow the petition.

One of the main means of reducing carbon emissions at Pitt, according to co-president Lindsay Blotzer, is to have Facilities Management change existing incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs, which are more energy-efficient.

Additionally, Blotzer will address other activities in which the University wastes energy, including the large number of lights that are left on overnight in campus buildings. Free the Planet wants Pitt to save energy by making sure these lights are turned off at night.

There is also a plan to lobby the University to offer a bike rental program.

“As a freshman I didn’t bring a bike, and I was wary of riding in the city, but after a while I got used to it,” Broich said.

If Pitt offers a program like this, Broich thinks that more students will leave their vehicles at home – a development that would not only reduce pollution but also traffic congestion. Broich said that the group wants to work in conjunction with the Parking, Transportation and Services Department to reach this goal.

Besides reducing campus carbon emissions, Free the Planet is joining forces with a similar group at Carnegie Mellon University to get as many professors as possible, across all disciplines, to speak about global warming in classes on Jan. 31. The campaign is called Focus the Nation and will be repeated by other environmental groups at campuses across the United States.

The last major goal of the group is likely the most ambitious. Group members are planning to lobby Pittsburgh City Council to institute a plastic bag tax. The consumer tax aims to get consumers to use reusable shopping bags in place of the common single-use bags that often get thrown away or end up littering the streets.

Although Blotzer realizes that taxes are never popular, and locally more than ever following the recent drink tax, she believes that consumers and the council will understand the benefit of the tax’s purpose.

“I think with any tax there’ll be resistance, but the bag tax would do more good for the environment,” Blotzer said. “Especially now, [they’ll agree to it] when people are rethinking their lifestyle choices in view of the environment.”

According to Blotzer, Americans use 100 billion plastic bags per year. Because a plastic bag “takes about 1,000 years to fully degrade,” little pieces end up contaminating the soil and the water supply and the bags also kill sea turtles and other animals that eat them.

Since Broich and Blotzer both know that their expectations are high for the semester, they concede that promises from either Pitt or the city regarding any of their goals will be acceptable gains.

But the determined students who comprise Free the Planet are not only interested in the serious cause of environmentalism. They have planned various campus events throughout the semester. In fact, this weekend there will be two such events.

Tonight at 9 p.m. the group will be holding a Fair Trade Cafe sponsored by the Oakland Teahouse. The cafe, which will be held in Nordy’s Place in the Union basement, offers free chocolate and drinks.

On Saturday, Free the Planet is holding Swap-O-Palooza in the Union’s assembly room from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This event asks attendees to bring old clothing that they could do without and swap for clothing that other people bring. The group will make sewing machines and patches available, so attendees will be able to alter the new gear they cop.

Free the Planet has been in existence at Pitt for about five years, in which time it has succeeded at such campaigns as bringing fair trade coffee to many campus kiosks.