Starting this week, National Wildlife Federation and partners launch the first of three national initiatives this winter and spring that will collectively mobilize an estimated 300,000 students, young people and community leaders in addressing the global warming crisis in positive ways that will help create a clean energy economy and new jobs:

We will begin with the historic "First 100 Days, A National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions", a program founded by Dr. Eban Goodstein of Lewis and Clark College, involving more than 700 colleges, universities and faith organizations all across the U.S. starting Wednesday, February 5. Featuring such environmental luminaries as NWF’s own, Larry Schweiger, as well as David Orr, Hunter Lovins, Betsy Taylor, Ray Anderson, Dianne Dillon-Ridgely, Jessy Tolkan, and others,the on-line broadcast focuses on policy recommendations for the new administration detailed in the President's Climate Action Plan. It is not too late to register and receive instructions for viewing "The First 100 Days" program. All the instructions you'll need to participate can be found at on the website.

Next, on February 28-March 2, 2009, we will converge on Capitol Hill with thousands of student leaders from all across the countryseeking clean energy solutions and green jobs at Powershift09.

Finally, on April 15, 2009, we will celebrate our peers' cutting-edge innovations for the 21st Century by hosting the acclaimed Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming program at our campuses, homes and offices. Showcasing the winners of a year-long competition, the on-line program features initiatives that dramatically curb the carbon footprint, tap clean energy, create new green jobs and save money. The campus that registers the most people for this program will win a free concert by the Steps!

The Kendeda Fund, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, Stonyfield Farm, and anonymous donors have helped make these initiatives possible and we thank them!

Image: Fritz Myer

While good green citizens are fond of using email to save trees, the widely-ignored fact is that those same emails take up all kinds of server space. Space which, as Warren Arbogast points out in the latest episode of Tech Therapy, isn't free, and requires a lot of electricity to run, maintain, and cool. And when we're talking about massive research and data projects, computing quickly sails to the front of the energy (and expense) line.

For example, the University of Michigan's computing is responsible for about 65 million pounds of carbon emissions annually, costing about $4.8 million in electricity bills, according to their own estimate in EDUCAUSE's white paper on the role of IT in sustainability.

So what's to be done?

Turning off computers at night is a good first step, but given that some estimates put emissions from computing at the same level as the aviation industry, much bigger steps are needed.

The key, says Arbogast, is to work systems-wide. All too often, the departments in charge of maintaining those computers never see the energy costs, making it a non-priority. When asked, he says, many IT staffers don't actually know how many servers exist at their school. So in order to conserve energy and save money, it's often necessary to get everyone in the same conversation: facilities managers, IT staff, department heads, and most importantly, whoever is in charge of the energy bill.

The University of Michigan, mentioned above, set a 10-percent reduction goal of computing energy consumption. According to the white paper, "the university is one of a handful of institutions that have joined Intel and Google in the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which hopes to cut computer energy consumption in half by 2010. The nonprofit alliance estimates that reducing consumption this much could slash carbon emissions by 54 million tons a year." Assuming energy rates remain somewhat constant, a 10% cut in electricity usage could correlate to almost $500,000 saved just in electricity charges.

To get to that ambitious number, everything from consolidating servers to Energy Star monitors will be in play.

Making more efficient "supercomputers" is also crucial, if expensive, as we noted last fall. Several universities, including Purdue and UCSD, are testing data centers that conserve as much as 40% of electricity, and the University of Maine has one that can be powered by cyclists, if anyone is so inclined.

Our latest issue is live. Here are today's headlines:

Is There Room for Sustainability in Every Classroom?
Faculty are finding new ways to incorporate issues of ecology, natural resources, social justice and human behavior into their classes, even those not in the environmental sciences.

Overcoming Solar's Challenges with a New Technology
A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has invented a cheaper method for harnessing solar energy, using a tinted dye that could efficiently absorb and spread energy across the surface of glass panes.

Students Follow the Yellow Bike Road
After a few false starts, bike-sharing programs are springing up in cities and on college campuses around the world, with each finding its own way to get people out of cars for the forty percent of trips in the United States that are less than two miles long.

ClimateEdu, published by National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecology program, offers news, resources, events, and opportunities for climate leadership on campus. To subscribe to our twice-monthly e-newsletter or browse our archives, visit the homepage: ClimateEdu: News for the Green Campus.

If 2007's Power Shift is any example, Power Shift 09 is going to be huge:

We've officially gone down the rabbit hole. For the latest news on campus sustainability programs, clean energy and the environment, follow us here.

In his inaugural speech, Barack Obama made no less than three separate mentions of the climate crisis, noting that as president he will lead the nation to "roll back the specter of a warming planet."

Now that we're in the first few days of a new administration, there are several events coming up in the next few months intended to bring students together against global warming, the soonest of which is the National Teach-In, which includes a webcast kick-off, a teach-in on February 5th, and a live web interface with members of Congress. It'sGettingHotInHere reports that so far 140 schools have signed up to plan events on campus, engage with their legislators, and unite around concrete policy recommendations in the First 100 Days.

Certainly, as Eban Goodstein points out in a recent Inside Higher Ed piece, we can't assume that university and college students and faculty bear the full weight here, particularly when it comes to advocacy. The National Teach-In was never intended to create or support the "perfect climate bill," or strong-arm politicians into voting for a particular piece of legislation. Rather, it is intended to get the youth who will likely face the greatest consequences of climate change working on solutions.

Scientists tell us that we have waited too long, that for thirty years they have searched for a plausible explanation of climate change that isn't based largely on CO₂ emissions. They haven't found one. And in order to stabilize the climate at a level to which we can adapt, without serious damage to the planet, we must act within the next 2 or 3 years.

Goodstein says, "The science is clear; the solutions are not. Political action is needed to lower the risks of catastrophic consequences, but what kind of action? How much mitigation and how soon? How much adaptation and what kind? Can we insure a “just transition”, protecting low income people from higher energy prices, and compensating workers who might lose their jobs?"

Doing such calculations is really the work of universities. If not there, where? After yesterday's inauguration, how is your campus going to address Obama's appeals to "restore science to its rightful place"?

An interesting discussion is taking place over at DotEarth, one of our favorite blogs. The post, which discusses students taking their places in the worlds of innovation and activism, mentions Ben Gulak's one-wheeled electric motorcycle, NJIT students capturing exhaust energy, and Manoj Sinha's project to fuel power plants in rural India with rice husks.

This is the sort of thing we usually go wild for -- students inventing things! youth speaking out for their planet! capturing energy! -- but commenter Annette Laing makes an important distinction:

"For every whizkid, there are a thousand undergrad students doing half-assed research projects that soon expose a predictable lack of understanding, knowledge, and maturity. Students doing their own research is a good idea, but too often, the powers-that-be in higher ed are endorsing this as a substitute for, not a supplement to, traditional learning. The denigration of faculty influence is implicit in this model, and yet faculty are also expected to complete meaningful research with undergrad involvement. As one chemistry professor (and excellent teacher) put it to me, it's like having a ball and chain attached."

This piece in the Journal-Tribune about a student experiment with algae illustrates the problem. "The research has not been without a few mishaps. The algae are native to Columbia, and need to be kept warm, said student Shannon Folsom. She said that the class had put some containers of algae on the windowsill, but it got too cold and died. She said that the class might experiment with algae native to Maine that could withstand colder temperatures. During a recent experiment to determine if pumping air into the water makes a difference in algae growth, the tanks became contaminated, said Beauchemin, and students were going to sterilize the tanks yesterday and redo the experiment."

This give-and-take is part of the scientific process, and an important thing for students to learn. There are enough university departments working on algae that this is unlikely to handicap the research much, so I doubt that these particular students are any kind of "ball and chain." However, Annette's point is that this kind of curriculum can slow the work that researchers need to do, with no measurable improvement in students' critical thinking skills.

While some stellar students, like those profiled in the DotEarth post, are able to take what they're learning in the classroom and synthesize it with their experiments to make some significant breakthroughs, they are the exception rather than the norm. (Which is why there are so many profiles on them: exceptions make for sexy newspaper stories.)

So how can curriculum both support student learning and cutting-edge research, particularly in the field of alternative energy? Does your school have a track record of doing this?

In the spring, we alerted you to the Florida legislature's approval of FGCU's solar array, which is expected to cover 19 acres and produce 2MW of electricity for the university.

However, to no one's surprise, the project has been delayed by more provincial concerns. Namely, permitting. 

While officials expect that the missing environmental resource and water use permits will be granted quickly, the clash between even the best-laid plans and bureaucracy is not a new one for universities.

"FGCU initially put December as a target date to see the first panels hit campus, hoping to take advantage of federal tax credits that were set to expire when the clock struck midnight on Dec. 31. Congress extended those credits as part of the financial bailout bill, though, making the back-and-forth permitting process not as stressful. Now, the university is just waiting for a green light."

Here at HQ, we are doing some retrofits -- including test drills for ground-source heating -- to make our building carbon-neutral, and what we've found is that the bidding process is absolutely crucial. Learning to ask the right questions saves a lot of time and headaches. In our specific case, we had much better results by specifying in RFPs that the bidder be familiar with permitting processes and provide us with solid examples. By including the permitting in the scope of the work, we headed some of this off at the pass, and ended up going with a project management firm instead of a contractor.

Of course, this won't solve every problem, but perhaps is useful as universities move forward with significant sustainability projects. What has your school's experience been? Where have you found unexpected "hurry-up-and-wait" moments? What lessons have you learned from the process?

Our latest issue is live. Here are today's headlines:

Youth Activists Making Their Voices Heard at Climate Talks
Joann Klimkiewicz
At climate talks in Poznan, young delegates from across the world added their voices to the debate, demanding that the global dialogue be refocused on the survival of civilizations and ecosystems.

Hydrogen: Just a Lot of Hot Gas?
Paul Tolme
Humboldt State’s new hydrogen-powered car and fueling station are part of a university-led effort to wean America off gasoline. But is hydrogen the fuel of tomorrow or yesterday’s hype? ClimateEdu goes for a ride to find out.

Service Learning Takes a Climate Approach
Courtney Cochran
A Warren Wilson College project addresses a climate challenge that lies beyond campus, taking advantage of the school's work program and service learning components to help local residents energy-proof their homes.

PERSPECTIVE: Recession is the Mother of Invention
Rachel Barge
As legislators make hard cuts to their budgets, education administrators hunker down on campus spending, particularly when it comes to so-called “luxury” sustainability programs. To compensate, student organizers and campus sustainability professionals are turning to new funding sources to implement vital campus sustainability initiatives.

ClimateEdu, published by National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecology program, offers news, best practice analysis, events, resources, and opportunities for climate leadership on campus. To subscribe to our twice-monthly e-newsletter or read our archives, visit the homepage: ClimateEdu: News for the Green Campus.

As you may have heard, Power Shift is back! We're proud to say that we expect thousands of students from every state to descend onto Washington DC to demand bold federal action on climate change.

This last election, we saw an unprecedented number of young people demanding a new direction for our energy economy – one that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create millions of green jobs and protect wildlife and our natural resources.

We are truly in the middle of a once in a lifetime opportunity to change the direction our country is taking for the better. You can be part of this history, if you register for Power Shift now!

This weekend-long conference gathers students and young activists from all over to discuss, debate and lobby for better climate policies and a shift to a way of life that will repower our country and restore the natural world.

In addition to hearing from speakers like Van Jones and Carol Browner, you and also attend conferences on a host of important ways to save the planet, like lobbying and community organizing. And then there's the chance to be a part of one of the largest youth climate gatherings ever to happen in the country!

Please click here for more information, and to register! See you then!