Date: Feb 2007

Venue:

8th (Thurs) – SDE Foyer

9th (Fri) Feb Outside Bizad Canteen

12th (Mon) – 14th (Wed) Feb Outside Central Library

15th (Thurs) - 16th (Fri) Feb Outside Lt 7 Engin

Aim: To spread the word about global warming and educate others how they can also make a difference by making small changes to their daily routine.

Details: Exhibition panels will be designed to provide key facts about global warming and more importantly, highlight actions which the students can take to help stop global warming in the Singapore context. Of the various measures possible, our focus will be on how to reduce energy wastage by encouraging positive habits like through simple actions like switching off the lights when not in use, as well as setting the thermostat to a lower temperature; the rationale being that lighting and air-conditioning actually make up the bulk of energy consumption at home and on campus. We also hope to provide information on how much carbon emission they are reducing for every action taken. For maximum reach to the students, we hope to have a roving exhibition, moving our exhibition to the different faculties. As our exhibition will not take up too much space, we hope to perhaps hold also in conjunction with school bazaars where possible due to their crowd-drawing abilities. Also for venues such as Central Library we may also tie-in with them and recommend some book which the students can borrow from the library for further reading. We can even scale down our exhibition so that the message can be directed brought across to student halls.

Campus-wide Survey on Environmental Issues

Date: In March 2007

Aim: To collect student feedback on energy usuage on campus (eg aircon too cold?) and recycling efforts etc. Will be working in collaboration with OSHE (Office of Safey, Health and Environment) and NUSSU SAVE.

Translation: There is now pressure on the NUS administration to follow/lead the way in environmental sustainability in campus management.

It includes the following member : Australian National University, National University of Singapore, Beijing University, Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology University, University of California, Berkeley, Cambridge University, Copenhagen University, Oxford University, Tokyo University and Yale University.

I shall highlight what some of the measures that these member universities have undertaken:

In 2005, Yale President Richard Levin approved a proposal for Yale University to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to a level 10 percent below its total emissions in 1990, also by the year 2020. (Source)

The Oxford University has also accepted its share of the UK’s commitment to a 20 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from 1990 levels by 2010. (Source) Singapore has signed the Kyoto Protocol. But there are no emission-reduction targets for non-Annex I countries such as Singapore. However, the CDM of the Kyoto Protocol allows industrialised countries to achieve part of their emission reduction commitments by conducting emission-reduction projects in non-Annex I countries. (Source) But the Singapore Green Plan 2012 does plan to decrease carbon intensity (i.e. carbon dioxide emission per GDP dollar) by 25% from 1990 level by 2012, so there is some commitment on our government side. On this side of the NUS administration

UC Berkeley Green Campus interns created and facilitated a one-credit class, “Energy 101.” Students conducted practice audits on their own apartments in preparation for course’s final project, when they were divided into teams and assigned one of twelve campus buildings to audit. Students. They also conducted a light-bulb swap – during which they exchanged about 1,500 compact fluorescent lamps for incandescent light bulbs – and held a residence hall energy competition. Through these efforts, as well as numerous smaller-scale campaigns, Green Campus reduced energy use in Berkeley residence halls by an estimated 7%.

 I’m sure there’s more. Please add on to this under comments if you have found more actions taken by other universities for the environment to share with other

Greenhouse gases (GHGs) refer to gases that absorb the infrared radiation from the sun and warm the lower atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, sulphur hexafluoride (SF 6 ) and hydroflourocarbons. In Singapore , the primary GHG from human activities is carbon dioxide.

How Greenhouse Gases Contribute to Global Warming

Energy from the sun warms the earth. In turn, the earth radiates some of the heat back to space. Greenhouse gases contribute to global warming by absorbing the infrared radiation from the Earth’s surface going into space, and reradiating it to all sides, including downward to the Earth’s surface, thus trapping some of the outgoing energy. A certain level of greenhouse gases is necessary to maintain the temperatures for life on earth to exist. However, the increase in GHGs caused by human activity has caused the earth to warm further, causing climate change.

From National Climate Change Strategy (Singapore) http://www.mewr.gov.sg/nccs/introduction.htmG

Source

Our two main objectives are

1. To reach out to the students to raise their awareness of the climate crisis that we are all facing and and they can each do their bit for the environment by cutting down their energy usage and carbon dioxide emissions

2. To convince the NUS administration to adopt a more energy-saving and efficient policy

We are always recruiting! To join us, send an email to energysavingclub@gmail.com or contact Yi Zhen @ 97568865 of Chris @ 97553292l.

SOURCE: National Center for Atmospheric Research | *30-year period: 1961-1990 | The Washington Post

The conclusions reached in the recently conducted Stern Review are the frightenly similar: The scientific evidence is now overwhelming: climate change is a serious global threat, and it demands an urgent global response. But there is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we take strong action now. What kind of action are we looking at? The Kyoto Protoccol will be inadequate. According to the Stern Review, we are looking at as much as decreasing our carbon emission to 80% of our current annual emissions. However despite these drastic calls for action, the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting.