Yale President Peter Salovey While lounging on the couch recently, my sore, surgically repaired arm cradled on pillows, I picked from the coffee table the most recent issue of the alumni magazine for Yale University. (My wife earned her undergraduate degree there, a few decades ago.) Whoa, the blazing orange cover almost burned my corneas as the scorching red headline announced: It's getting hot. Climate change, see inside.
Yale, we learn, has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050. At first blush, that sounds pretty good. Way to go, Yale, boldly determined to set a shining-green example for other incredibly wealthy and privileged institutions in just 30 years...wait a second, that's pathetic. Thirty freakin' years? Peter Salovey, the current president, will soon turn 62. At age 92, we presume, he'll be rolled on stage and feted by the Yalies of 2050 for his marvelous if deliberate plan to chip, chip, chip ever so slowly, let's not be hasty, at the existential crisis that supposedly is climate change. In the meantime, we'll always have this issue of Yale, featuring perfectly nice articles about climate change endeavors at the old alma mater. President Salovey, by all accounts a mensch, contributes a back-slapping letter about the university's groundbreaking (with a teaspoon) efforts. Solar panels and composting! Compostable solar panels! As if anticipating objections, he's even employed a "task force" to explore the question of speeding up the process a wee bit.
C'mon, Peter, you've got a $30.3 billion endowment! Some of the smartest people on the planet! I'm not going full Greta on you -- the amazing Ms. Thunberg this week told the assembled elites at Davos to stop the nonsense now, not by 2050, now -- but you can do better than this. Boston University, with its measly $2.2 billion endowment, has set its carbon-neutral sights on 2040. Just call up President Brown and he'll tell you how to do it by purchasing wind power in South Dakota.
So, for Yale, let's say 2030. That's within the university's epic grasp, don't you think? Oh, and check out this awesome poster that BU students put together. Your turn, bulldogs.
Yale, we learn, has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050. At first blush, that sounds pretty good. Way to go, Yale, boldly determined to set a shining-green example for other incredibly wealthy and privileged institutions in just 30 years...wait a second, that's pathetic. Thirty freakin' years? Peter Salovey, the current president, will soon turn 62. At age 92, we presume, he'll be rolled on stage and feted by the Yalies of 2050 for his marvelous if deliberate plan to chip, chip, chip ever so slowly, let's not be hasty, at the existential crisis that supposedly is climate change. In the meantime, we'll always have this issue of Yale, featuring perfectly nice articles about climate change endeavors at the old alma mater. President Salovey, by all accounts a mensch, contributes a back-slapping letter about the university's groundbreaking (with a teaspoon) efforts. Solar panels and composting! Compostable solar panels! As if anticipating objections, he's even employed a "task force" to explore the question of speeding up the process a wee bit.
C'mon, Peter, you've got a $30.3 billion endowment! Some of the smartest people on the planet! I'm not going full Greta on you -- the amazing Ms. Thunberg this week told the assembled elites at Davos to stop the nonsense now, not by 2050, now -- but you can do better than this. Boston University, with its measly $2.2 billion endowment, has set its carbon-neutral sights on 2040. Just call up President Brown and he'll tell you how to do it by purchasing wind power in South Dakota.
So, for Yale, let's say 2030. That's within the university's epic grasp, don't you think? Oh, and check out this awesome poster that BU students put together. Your turn, bulldogs.
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