Thomas Friedman is well-known for his book, The World is Flat.  His 2008 work, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - And How it Can Renew America, is insightful and provocative.  If the global economy and U.S. election were not the two biggest topics in the media, I am certain that Friedman’s latest book would receive more coverage in the press.  Hot, Flat, and Crowded is about the need for a Green Revolution.  More than 400 pages in length, it is not a light read.  If you don’t have time to read a book of this length, seriously consider the CD or MP3 version.  If that’s not an option, borrow the book and read the first and last chapters.

Sometime ago, I wrote about the President’s Climate Commitment initiative.  I stated that I thought it was the right thing to do even though I wasn’t sure that carbon neutrality was achievable in the near term.  Friedman’s premise is that reducing our carbon footprint is the right thing to do for our children and that waiting twenty or thirty more years to start conservation efforts will be too late.

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I attended The Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual Executive Leadership Forum in Washington, DC and had the opportunity to listen to a panel discussing the pros and cons of signing the Presidents Climate Commitment. David Oxtoby, President of Pomona College and former Dean of Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago, made a point which was similar to my thinking that he had some reservations about his and any institution’s ability to achieve carbon neutrality but thought that the process of examining efforts and pledging a commitment was important. Oxtoby earned his PhD in Physical Chemistry from UC-Berkeley and has the background to understand the scoring system. Another point that he made was that his institution does not and will not buy the emission credits that other institutions have purchased as he does not believe that the buyer can control the long term outcome (the owner of the forest could harvest the trees, for example). Mark Wrighton, Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, said that his institution had not signed the Commitment but discussed the many activities underway to reduce carbon emissions including supporting a light rail with five stops at WU and providing rail passes to employees. Kathleen Schatzberg, President of Cape Cod Community College and one of the charter signers of the Commitment, discussed her efforts to obtain state of Massachusetts approval for the first LEED-certified building at a state higher ed institution. Other efforts at her campus included converting 80 percent of previously mowed open space to meadows and receiving funding for a wind turbine. I left the session inspired by the efforts of the three institutions and their presidents.

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