An Imperative for the Planet Earth

A light goes on in a Harvard office building as a young man drives to work in his sports utility vehicle and a woman bites into her morning eggs and bacon. Across the world, villagers in a small town are hit by a hurricane of unusually high intensity—a storm that they were not expecting. The connection between these two groups of events may seem tenuous at first, but in our globalized age, the actions we take at Harvard can have direct effects around the planet. Many of our everyday habits—from charging our laptops and cell phones to eating industrially-produced food in the dining halls to tossing out our trash (which goes via train to a landfill in South Carolina)—result in the emission of greenhouse gases. In aggregate, these emissions help cause the average temperature of our planet to rise, which in turn causes a major change in weather patterns.

The effects of climate change are real. The most dramatic effects include stronger storms that destroy coastal cities such as New Orleans, rapidly receding glaciers, spring arriving earlier, and invasive species moving into new, warmer areas. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “The world will have to end its growth of carbon emissions within seven years and become mostly free of carbon-emitting technologies in about four decades to avoid killing as many as a quarter of the planet’s species from global warming.” These tragic effects, however, in a twist of cruel irony, will likely impact most strongly those who have had the smallest hand in bringing them about. The wealthy, industrialized West, meanwhile, will largely be able to afford to avoid, adapt to, and rebound from crises.

Despite our lower vulnerability to the effects of climate change, we have a moral obligation to act on this issue. Greenhouse gases released at Harvard affect the whole world. In fact, their negative impact is much more likely to be felt in Anchorage or Mumbai than here in Cambridge. Additionally, as one of the most respected institutions of higher education, Harvard’s decisions about climate change policies will likely influence other universities and organizations. In short, it is incumbent upon us to lead. Why? Because we can, and because we have a moral obligation to protect those most vulnerable to climate change.

As we write, a task force convened by President Drew G. Faust is discussing how the university should address its climate footprint. This task force must realize that its charge is not as simple as reducing Harvard’s physical climate footprint. Nor can it presume to lead just by being the first mover; many other institutions, cities, states and even countries have already stood up to address this issue head on. Instead, the task force must recommend a strategy that pushes the limits of what these other actors have realized. We must reduce our emissions more quickly, more cleverly and more comprehensively than those who have come before us. In showing what can be done, we make it a requirement of any responsible institution to do likewise. The first step in showing this leadership is for the task force to recommend a date by which Harvard must reduce its net emissions to zero, and in so doing to achieve climate neutrality.



Karen A. McKinnon is an earth and planetary sciences concentrator in Currier House. Elizabeth R. Shope is an environmental science and public policy concentrator in Leverett House. They are members of the Harvard College Environmental Action Committee.