Why
Why We’re Going Green
Why are we taking this step to ensure that our operations here at BMUN are sustainable?
On a local level, being a club based in northern California, we live in one of the most environmentally conscious regions in the nation. Businesses and community leaders in our area have consistently set the bar high as pioneers in the emerging field of eco-awareness.
The cities of Berkeley and Oakland are both signed on to the Kyoto Protocol, and the residents of the city of Berkeley voted in 2006 to establish an aggressive greenhouse gas reduction measure that calls for 80% fewer emissions by 2050. The city also implemented an innovative new composting program in late 2007 that has been very successful.
Organizations such as the Bay Area Green Business Association have also fostered the development of a greener ethos, and we aspire to meet their standards to qualify as a registered non-profit that is “green-certified.”
University of California at Berkeley has risen to the challenge as well, and has made impressive efforts to raise awareness about the current challenges posed by sustainability within the student body. The University has eliminated the sale of bottled water on campus, and has also established limits on the size and quantity of flyers that can be distributed along Sproul Plaza. They host an annual Sustainability Summit, and discussions with the other UCs and Cal State universities on how to improve their current environmental efforts. More can be seen on UC Berkeley’s efforts here.
These inspiring efforts from leaders in our community have, in part, motivated our desire to “go green.”
On a broader scale, a major reason we’re going green is “equity.” As a group that is passionate about international relations, we know that equity is one of the single most important factors to which all peacekeeping organizations aspire. But the term applies to much more than just political fair-play and economic justice. Environmental equity is becoming increasingly important in today’s globalized society. For example, when a developing nation is entering the process of industrialization in 2008, what standards or regulations should it be held accountable for? Certainly the Industrial Revolution in England of the late eighteenth century, and its subsequent American counterpart, were not “clean, green” enterprises by any means; but several centuries ago, the world didn’t have the technological abilities to measure the chemical outputs of a certain type of machinery, or an industry’s overall “carbon footprint.” Today, we live in a different world.
In our modern society, it is hard to determine how much a country should be regulating its own process of industrialization, in order to be given a fair – an equitable – chance at economic development. These days, we know that the Earth is experiencing a warming trend, which is linked to myriad climatic changes across the globe: the melting of glacial ice caps, the growth of the hole in the ozone layer, and the consequent appearance of more powerful storms, as seen in the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in the United States, and Cyclone Nargis in Burma, among other incidents. We know that a number of these events have been linked conclusively to recent human activity – specifically, activities which reduce the ability of the natural environment to bring itself into balance. Extensive deforestation and the proliferation of carbon-emitting motor vehicles on nearly every continent are examples of these unbalancing activities. But we also know that we can do things to alleviate the detrimental aspects of our human presence, and that’s where we fit in.
As members of an internationally-conscious group, as residents of the world, and also of the nation responsible for producing nearly one-quarter of annual carbon emissions for the planet, we feel it is incredibly important that we do our part to reduce our collective impact – our “footprint” – on the environment. Especially because of our interest in international affairs, we are aware that our actions reach much farther than the everyday sphere we live in. We hope that you’ll join us by taking an interest in going green in your own daily life – to help, we’ve provided some tips here.