An economic crisis is the opportune time to observe the domino effect of international networking. Problems are never isolated in one particular country; a drop in the stock market is felt globally. A cure for a disease benefits worldwide. All cultures have survival in common, and at some point must consider sustainability both individually, and in conjunction with the rest of the world.

Cornell’s second annual Sustainability Month celebration will address topics of concern that not only affect our community and state, but stretch all the way from the Saigon River to Zambia.

When looking at sustainability, there are three major components that need to be considered: energy, environment, and economic development.

“Any examination of sustainability is inaccurate unless you integrate all three aspects,” says Mark Lawrence of the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future.

For this reason, events throughout Cornell’s Sustainability Month will cover a wide range of topics, from renewable energy sources to science policy. All are geared for this year’s theme: “Climate Action and U.”

An anticipated highlight event will be a lecture by one of the most famous climatologists in the world, the 2010 Iscol Lecturer Dr. James E. Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

Hansen is credited for bringing global warming awareness to the Congressional level, and his research of Venus’ clouds contributed to identifying their makeup as sulfuric acid. He will speak on Monday, April 19, from 4:30-5:30 p.m. at Kennedy Hall.

A keynote lecture will be given by the president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Richard Trumka. He will speak as part of Cornell’s ILR Union Days, April 8 and 9, titled “Building a Green Collar Movement: Labor and the Environment.”

Cornell will host another noted speaker, General Motors Vice President Daniel Hancock. His energy engineering seminar, “GM Advanced Propulsion Technology — Driving to a Sustainable Future,” will take place on Earth Day, April 22, in 255 Olin Hall from 12:15-1:15 p.m.

With the Sustainable Campus and the Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell is the perfect setting to converge on and share information.

“As far as I know, we’re the only campus with a hydropower plant,” Lawrence says. This harks back to the vision of a climate- neutral university by 2050, and Cornell’s 2011 project to “Go Beyond Coal.”

The founding principles of sustainability month can be traced all the way back to 1862, when Congress passed a bill to make available “at least one college in each state where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific or classical studies, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts...in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes.”

To do this, federal land was given to the states so that they could sell it and use the proceeds to build the college, known as a land grant. Sharing a vision to do something beneficial for the state, former Senators Ezra Cornell and Andrew White created New York State’s land grant university.

Today, Cornell’s land grant mission is to share the knowledge they obtain with the public.

“Under the land grant institution, whatever research is done here, our hope is that it’s pushed forward to better the world,” Lawrence says. “We’re trying to minimize our carbon footprint and become climate neutral, and we hope we can serve as a model for other schools and small businesses.”

According to Lawrence, some Sustainabilty Month events may require registration, but are generally free and open to the public.

For a full list of events and information on registration, visit www.ccsf.cornell.edu/april2010.

TAGGED WITH: cornell university, economy, energy, sustainability