Moving Beyond Dirty Energy

At the end of March, an ExxonMobil tar sands pipeline ruptured in Arkansas. Since then, around 300,000 gallons of oil have spilled. And this isn’t conventional crude we’re talking about—it’s diluted bitumen, which is heavier and harder to clean up because it sinks in water. An all-too-familiar deceptive media campaign from Exxon has made things even more complicated.

Here are the essentials. I’d encourage you to follow the links for more background.

Today (April 3rd) BGSU president, Dr. Mary Ellen Mazey, and her cabinet hosted a National Start! Walking Day event. This event aimed to raise awareness about healthier lifestyles for faculty and students at BGSU by leading a 30 minute walk around campus. While this helps promote personal health, students believe that Bowling Green State University has a greater responsibility as a higher-education institution to promote/ support health across the globe.

At 10:30 this morning, seven students from Bowling Green State University entered the office of Dr. Mary Ellen Mazey, the university’s president, to meet with her for a second time. On the agenda: 100% clean energy.

The seven students are leaders in Environmental Action Group working to make a clean energy future at BGSU a reality instead of a mere possibility. With that being said, they are only some of many students who want the university’s leaders to ensure our future. Their demand reflects the urgency felt by the students of the university: a transition to 100% clean energy at BGSU by 2020. Their actions reflect that same urgency. From petitioning – they’ve amassed over 2,700 student signatures – to coalition building – 14 student organizations at the university have signed onto the coalition letter addressed to President Mazey – to staging a rally and march, they clearly know what they’re doing when it comes to grassroots organizing. They have established a local media presence that attests to their organizing – Rally for Our Future, which took place on March 21st, was covered in The BG News, Sentinel-Tribune, and in a live interview on BG24 News. During today’s meeting, even President Mazey commended EAG as “vocal, active, and organized.”

“The ultimate measure of a man [or woman] is not where he [or she] stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he [or she] stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today, climate change poses a challenge unlike any challenge we've faced before. How we respond will define who we are as people. We, as members of our respective communities, regardless of our likenesses and differences, must rise together. We must rise together as brothers and sisters of one earth, of one expansive community, in solidarity. And as we rise, we must make sure to wake our leaders from their current slumber.