U.S. college students are, like, totally into clean energy

Alternative School

In answer to the loathed question "What are you going to do after you graduate?" gaggles of U.S. college students are looking into careers in alternative energy. (A group of college students is called a gaggle, right?) Green technology is having a heyday in schools from Illinois State to Harvard to Dartmouth; energy professor Dan Kammen says enrollment in energy classes at UC-Berkeley "is off the charts." At Stanford, which recently renamed its Petroleum Engineering Department the Energy Resources Engineering Department, attendance at a recent student-organized renewable-energy symposium was nearly triple the 500 expected. "There is a fad dynamic to this, but I think that this is going to be a long-term thing," says Christine Rosen of UC's Haas School of Business. "Technological innovation, the rising cost of oil, conflict in the Middle East, and the public's growing awareness of global climate change are having an impact." You might even say we're finally learning our lesson.

straight to the source: Reuters, Leonard Anderson, 29 Mar 2007

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Comments: (1 comment)

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And the Children shall lead us...

I am working in the area of trying to get people to face up to the fact that if we are to have a sustainable future, we need to educate our children - the GenXers and GenYers - NOW. While I applaud the interest of the college level students, the educational system needs to take this farther.

On my website - http://www.standanddeliveramerica.com - I have posted under the Articles heading two curricula that I have devised that could be implemented in any school system that would incorporate sustainability into the curriculum as part of the entire learning process, as well as through a junior college or online university program. Education is the key to our futures, and we need to start teaching our children now about how to create an energy independent, sustainable future before we completely run out of time. I have also posted a blog under Man and Nature as the first in a series addressing the affects of global warming and our need to reconnect with nature at any age as a way of finding the answers we seek.

I applaud the universities mentioned in the article for leading the way in making these programs available. Even Northern Arizona University with its Ponderosa Project and the ASU Sustainability School and Centr are working here in Arizona to create awareness and knowledge in this field, and the fact that our young people are so interested gives me some hope for the future.

by djnoll at 12:16 PM on 03 Apr 2007

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