On February 11th, Suffolk University Sustainability Committee opened a special event called “Signs of Change Teach-In”. The event was taken place at the Amenities room, 73 Tremont St. from 1pm to 2pm.Three speakers from different organizations were invited to this event and attendees had a panel discussion on post-Copenhagen Climate Change Conference and what action we can take for fighting against climate change. Students and professors were so enthusiastic to ask questions and express opinions based on their own research. So far, this event was very essential for me to understand the stance of private organizations on the results of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.
The most interesting topic discussed in this talk was the discussion over carbon offset. Overall this talk was very sophisticated and I did not understand some terms and backgrounds of environmental issues. But I have done research on carbon trade and the goals of the Kyoto protocol last year so I knew the system of carbon offset. Ms. Lisa Hodes, from The Gold Standard Foundation, mentioned about the inefficiency of carbon offset. Implementing a “carbon tax” has been debated over decades to decrease the carbon emission of each country. However, very strong support for carbon trade by international actors discouraged actualization of the carbon tax so carbon tax is not very realizable these days. Ms. Hodes insisted that carbon trade is not working as much as it was expected to. Also there was a question from the listeners about why international actors are investing more in carbon offsets rather than its infrastructure. Ms. Hodes commented that indeed corporations should invest in infrastructure. So far, I understood that the idea of carbon offset is very creative but there are many obstacles to overcome for actual implementation to occur.
Also, it was very interesting that all three speakers agreed that the environmental problem occurring now is not global warming, but climate change. Although global warming has been widely discussed over decades, in some parts of the world, the weather is very unstable and even cooler than before. One recent relevant example is the snow storm in D.C. and snow in Florida; Boston did not have as much snow as D.C. The random weather forecast I watch every morning might be a symptom of global climate change.
Overall this event was a very good opportunity for me to know the real opinions of private organizations toward the results of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. I am very interested in the works of Suffolk University Sustainability Committee, so I am planning to visit the weekly meeting of a student group called “Suffolk Recycles” to take an action for ongoing climate change.
