TWO NAYS I browsed skeptically through the latest issue of New Trail magazine, which boasted at length of the level of environmental involvement the U of A has displayed. I consider myself quite aware of the environmental footprint philosophy, and I must say that when I visit campus I don’t get the feeling that the U of A is equally aware. The engineering learning centre has its lecture theatres named after oil companies. But it’s suggested that professor Anne Neath’s work to reclaim the northern tar sands is somehow a greening act. Although this type of work lessens the negative impact of the process of oil extraction, perhaps the University should be working proactively to prevent such mitigation from being necessary. I find it amazing that a university of the U of A’s calibre isn’t doing more to curb the direct causes of climate change and atmospheric emissions rather than simply cleaning up the mess. The article featuring the Edmonton waste management centre was interesting, but
whenever I hear commentary such as this I don’t hear the message that society needs to reduce its output of garbage. In fact, there are people who would gladly increase their consumption and garbage creation because they feel like they are being sustainable when they learn that methane gas can be collected from garbage sites; a totally renewable system in their minds. In your next report on U of A greenness I hope that you can direct me to the office of meaningful green policy initiatives and report on the University’s plan to reduce emissions through architectural and engineering initiatives on campus and their plan for education of the public and society at large to reduce their own ecological footprint. Ken Eshpeter, ’71 BSc(Ag) Daysland, AB *** Reading through the Autumn 2009 New Trail I was surprised to find articles about the research done at the
University, searching for technological fixes to the environmental destruction caused by tar sands development. As the impact of climate change is increasingly obvious, it has become mainstream to “go green.” Grappling with the environmental footprint of economic and other human activities requires a focus on avoiding environmental destruction in the first place, rather than developing expensive “end-of-pipe” solutions that need to be financed by taxpayer’s money. The companies involved in the tar sands — as well as the Alberta government — steer research priorities in this direction, as exemplified by the $2 billion investments in carbon capture and storage technology. It is seriously questionable that research on tar sands development can ever be categorized as going green. If the U of A truly wants to go green, its research focus should be shifted to alternative energy, conservation and green transition strategies, rather than perpetuating the environmental havoc of dirty oil. Geert De Cock Edmonton, AB U of A PhD candidate, Department of Political Science
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Editor’s note: While it would be preferable for such things as the oil sands and the waste generated by a city to have zero environmental impact, such an ideal is not yet achievable by any known extraction or collection method, so that the best that can be done is to strive to ameliorate the environmental impact and try to reclaim what has been disturbed. Such things as working on a waterless extraction method for bitumen from the oil sands, reducing the size of tailings ponds, returning mined land to its natural state as quickly as possible and trying to recycle as much waste as possible are all worthy endeavours. However, not creating a mess that needs cleaning up in the first place is always preferable to trying to find ways to make that mess disappear. As for “architectural and engineering initiatives on campus,” the Edmonton Waste Management story did include the information that the University has recently announced the creation of the new Office of Sustainability as well as the facts that the newly renovated Triffo Hall has passed its first review for Gold LEED certification and that the new Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science will have a LEED-Silver equivalent rating.