Students plan changes after clean energy conference

WASHINGTON (April 28) – In a sea of about 5,000 students in green hardhats,  with protest signs and puppets in hand, St. Bonaventure University senior Lauryn Klingler joined in a march down Pennsylvania Avenue to promote clean energy. Chants such as “Ain’t no power like the power of the people ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop” and “Frack no, we won’t go” reverberated through the air. Students, equipped with rebellious attitude like those of 60s civil rights protestors, traveled from the United States Chamber of Commerce to British Petroleum headquarters to coal plant Gen On’s headquarters to Lafayette Square. Klingler, a political science major, realized a far deeper meaning behind the grass-roots movement known as PowerShift.      

       

“I’m part of something really big here. There’s nothing quite like it,” said Klingler.      

Different puzzle pieces had to fit together in order for PowerShift 2011 to occur.  Workshops and seminars, keynote speakers, marches, those scheduled and not, and a concert made up the weekend. 

Ten thousand college students from across the country joined together in a convention center in Washington, D.C. for one purpose: rallying for a cleaner, more environmentally friendly earth. With clean energy as the beginning, the weekend delved into topics like climate change, fossil fuels, natural disasters and hydrofracking, said Klinger.

In addition to Klingler, three other members of Tread Lightly, St. Bonaventure’s sustainability club, attended PowerShift: juniors Greg Hoyos and Sinead Coleman and freshman Kyle Wilkinson.      

“Rallying made me feel so small because of the crowd, but so large because we were all there for the same underlying cause. It was almost like a religious experience,” said environmental science major Wilkinson. 

Hoyos, a business major from Hornell, joined the club because he has always enjoyed the outdoors, whether hiking, hunting, camping or fishing. While at PowerShift, Hoyos wanted to address the way New York handles hydrofracking, or hydraulic fracturing, said Hoyos. 

Josh Fox, a keynote speaker at PowerShift, made a movie titled “Gasland,” which has been shown at St. Bonaventure to raise environmental awareness, said Franciscan nun Suzanne Kush. As the faculty adviser of Tread Lightly, Kush said more students should pay respect to the earth because doing so upholds the Franciscan tradition of St. Bonaventure University. 

According to Josh Fox’s website, Gaslandthemovie.com, “Horizontal hydrofracking is a means of tapping shale deposits containing natural gas that were previously inaccessible by conventional drilling. Vertical hydrofracking is used to extend the life of an existing well once its productivity starts to run out, sort of a last resort. Horizontal fracking differs in that it uses a mixture of 596 chemicals, many of them proprietary, and millions of gallons of water per frack. This water then becomes contaminated and must be cleaned and disposed of.”

Hoyos said he has become so passionate about hydrofracking because the moratorium, or waiting period, to delay fracking in New York will expire in July. If fracking begins in New York, it will be a serious threat to the state’s fresh water supply. Hydrofracking fluid contaminates the fresh water, making it unusuable and toxic, said Hoyos. 

Tread Lightly, which Coleman started herself as a recycling club, has expanded into encompassing a whole lifestyle focused on sustainability. By enforcing the ideals of recycling and using less energy, Tread Lightly has made a difference on campus, said Coleman, a biology major. She turned campus from a place that had very little to no recycling habits into a regularly recycling hub by establishing proper signage around academic buildings and residence halls, said Coleman.

As the driving force behind the “green townhouse,” an eco-friendly residence for students that recycles separately from the rest of campus, Coleman said that there aren’t many differences to living an environmentally friendly life. Besides counting their recyclables, students only have to adjust to slightly lower water pressure, energy-efficient appliances and automatic lights, said Coleman.    

Erica Mungall, a junior environmental science major, said she chose to live in the “green townhouse” because everything works just the same and her parents raised her to be conscious of the environment.  

By learning how to communicate more effectively at PowerShift, Coleman and the others took away ideas and inspiration to apply to Bonaventure. By doing so, students can become more aware of their own environment and the academic options available to them, said Coleman. By communicating more openly with faculty, students can influence their curriculums, said Coleman. 

“No one’s heard of a sustainability minor because no one talks about it,” said Coleman.

 After having attended PowerShift, Coleman plans to revamp and restructure Tread Lightly, said Coleman.  

“We want to increase our numbers and PowerShift opened our eyes to making Bona’s a more eco-friendly place,” said Wilkinson.