Dennison's signature makes UM among the first 100 institutions in the country to answer a call to action by pledging to reduce - and eventually eliminate - campus greenhouse gas emissions.
“I think it is important to do this because of what we have stood for all along,” Dennison said. “This institution is well known for its stance on protecting the environment and doing things in a rational and sensible way.
Although a rigorous and in-depth Web site is dedicated to the climate commitment, it is generally described as a high-visibility effort to make campuses more sustainable and to address global warming by garnering institutional commitments to reduce (and ultimately neutralize) greenhouse gas emissions on campuses nationwide.
Making the pledge, according to the volumes of press material, is more than a symbolic gesture. UM and other “signatories” have agreed to set in motion an agenda which includes creating task forces to guide the process to help restabilize the Earth's climate.
The process will be monitored by the collective universities and colleges, and progress will be marked on the climate commitment Web Site.
The following are some of the initial guiding directives:
n The campuses must complete an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions within one year, starting in July 2007, including emissions from electricity, heating, commuting and air travel.
n Create and implement a reduction plan that includes a target date and interim milestones for achieving “climate neutrality” within two years.
n Take two of six immediate steps specified in the commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while the more comprehensive plan is being developed.
n Integrate sustainability into the curriculum and make it part of the educational experience.
n Make the action plan, inventory and periodic progress reports publicly available.
“I firmly believe institutions like Montana have an obligation to set an example,” Dennison said. “We should be leading by way of research and education, and doing things we talk about as we manage our own affairs.”
“I think my role will be fairly small in all of this,” he said. “Because as you talk to people across the campus, you immediately sense and understand a deep and broad commitment to issues like this. My role is to help facilitate what they believe and what all of us better believe in.”
“It's taken us a good deal of time and plenty of good science to arrive at this knowledge that people here on campus and in Montana have arrived at long ago,” he said. “These issues this commitment is hoping to address are the defining issues of our time.”
In 2002, Dennison signed the international Talloires Declaration, which dedicated UM and institutions from more than 40 countries to promoting sustainable development, self-determination and social justice on local, state, national and global levels.
Upon signing the declaration, Dennison appointed a Sustainable Campus Committee to guide and document UM's efforts in meeting the goals of the Talloires initiative.
Dennison will turn to UM's Sustainable Campus Committee to initially help guide its work on the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. He will formally and publicly announce UM's new pledge in April to kick off campus Earth Day events.
“A lot of us think this is an extremely positive step and a visionary step for UM,” said Phil Condon, a UM professor of environmental studies and member of the campus sustainability committee.
“I think this will move the university in all the right directions for sustainability,” he said. “It will give us structure and it will put us in a group of colleges and universities that will be working on these same kinds of issues.
“I see a lot of possibilities for sharing the progress - and the process - and I think that will make it easier, in a way, than trying to figure out a lot of this on our own at UM.”
As director of the Montana Climate Office, UM professor Don Potts applauded Dennison's action.
“The objectives of the commitment are pretty clear; it wants to make sustainability something that isn't just preached, but something that is practiced,” he said.
Potts has been monitoring the initiative's Web site, and is pleased to see that it is quickly gaining traction. Dozens of schools have signed on, bringing the total number to 146 last week.
“I'm not evangelical about this, but we have plenty of evidence that the climate is changing,” Potts said. “The carbon emissions? I'm 100 percent sure that it's man-caused, and there are other compelling reasons even if man-made carbon isn't the culprit in this thing as some skeptics are saying.
“By signing on, higher education is taking action. We are doing our part for society, and in the process, we are developing alternative energies that will in the long run help us wean ourselves from dependence on fossil fuels.”
“In principle, I think every university should be signing on to this,” said Steve Running, a UM ecology professor and one of the nation's leading researchers on global warming.
“The rationale for this is that we are looking at transforming society fundamentally for the next 50 years, and it doesn't appear we have any option,” Running said. “Something this big is appropriate for our universities to lead the way for society and to show innovative thinking, and the ability and willingness to do something new.”
“We as scientists are seeing a momentum in the global climate system and it's heading in a dangerous direction,” he said. “We don't know how fast it's going or how to stop it, but the one thing we do know is that we need to balance our greenhouse gas emissions - and that is going to literally transform society in ways so deep we will be shaking our heads over it in 50 years.”
Just back from an international climate conference in Brazil, Running said the talk over global warming has changed from one filled with energized debate among scientists to one of general agreement.
“People are now looking past the climate-issue questions,” he said, “and asking instead, what do we do now?”
In the United States, Running said, the answer is to transform society from top to bottom in ways so radical his only reference point is the changes brought on by the Industrial Revolution.
Everybody needs to stop and consider how much carbon is generated from their daily lifestyle, he said, everything from how much electrical power is used in the home, to how we travel and how much we travel.
Changing light bulbs to energy efficient bulbs, commuting, cutting back on carbon-centric recreation are some changes people can make - or consider, Running said. “But I think everybody has to start thinking these things through.”
Because Americans per capita produce more greenhouse gas emissions than any other country in the world - by a factor of five, Running said, Americans must take the first major steps in addressing global warming.
On the Net
To learn more about the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, log on to www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org.
That message was loud and clear at the conference in Brazil.
“The rest of the world is looking to America for leadership on the carbon-emissions issue,” he said, “and we can't expect them to make the slightest sacrifice until we make substantial ones.”
Running said he's cheering on UM's role in leading the charge. It's a bold and hopeful move, he said, and he suggests a first step UM's climate committee and campus administrators could take:
“Buy hybrid cars for the motor pool.”
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