Contest sponsored to promote green efforts

By Cassie Potler, contributing writer
Posted on October 29, 2007

The National Wildlife Federation and the National Association for Campus Activities are sponsoring their second annual “Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming” competition, created to recognize efforts to solve global warming on campuses all over the country.

NWF’s Campus Ecology program started the competition last fall because of the negativity surrounding global warming in the media.

“In the media there is so much regarding the consequences of global warming and the gloom and doom of it,” said NWF campus ecology associate Jen Fournelle. “There’s nothing about the solutions.”

By starting the competition, NWF’s Campus Ecology program aims to show that most of the solutions to global warming could be implemented locally.

“Campuses are the perfect place for solutions to occur,” Fournelle said. “Not only do they teach future generations, but [they] have so much technology and research and are like small cities in infrastructure.”

Sophomore Ashley Palmateer said she feels that although students are aware of global warming, they are hesitant to take action.

“Our campus needs to become more aware of these issues,” Palmateer said. “We hand out ‘environmentally friendly’ flyers on pieces of paper that get thrown right in the trash.”

Sophomore Scott Klepacz agreed.

 “It seems like we’re wasting so much,” he said.  “Everyday I see us watering our roads.”

The winner will receive grant money to be used toward global warming projects, free membership with Campus Ecology, and a feature in NWF’S nationwide “Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming” broadcast in April. The broadcast, a Web cast streaming high-quality video, will feature the winning schools, discussions on global warming and the winning YouTube videos. Last year approximately 5,000 people tuned in to view the broadcast live.

The NWF is looking for projects that address the topics of clean energy, energy efficiency, transportation, habitat restoration and waste reduction. Contestants can enter by submitting a 500-word essay or an original three-minute video as there are separate winners in each category. Videos must be uploaded to YouTube, where the winners will be chosen by NWF based on the number of views and votes each video gets.