American campuses go green

Sadly it seems that America’s college campuses are going green. According to an article in Business Week Bill McKibben, a prominent environmentalist, is spearheading a virtual march on Washington on 14 April called Step It Up. Over 1,100 campuses have signed up to the campaign to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. The piece also draws a useful comparison with activism of the past:

“Unlike the Earth Day kids of the 1970s, climate activists who belong to the 80 million-strong demographic bulge known as the Millennials aren’t hard left or anti-business. Sometimes called Gen Y (teens to mid-20s), they wield a tool kit that includes Excel spreadsheets, administrators’ numbers on cell-phone speed dials, and blogs. And their ranks represent a wide swath of disciplines and beliefs, from the 3,000-member Engineers for a Sustainable World to the Evangelical Youth Climate Initiative to Net Impact, a green business school network with 130 chapters. Student groups at 570 schools signed up to take part this year in the Campus Climate Challenge, a campaign sponsored by 30 environmental groups.”