The Brown & White

As environmental problems keep sprouting up, opportunities for Lehigh students to go green are blossoming as well.

"In the last few years, there has been a huge upsurge in awareness because we are seeing environmental degradation on a global level in ways we can quantify," Environmental Science Professor Dork Sahagian said.

The challenge is using the knowledge we have to create a sustainable environment.

"At the system level, it is stacked against us," Sahagian said. "It is difficult to behave in a way that restores or preserves the environment because the system is not set up for it."

Despite large-scale systematic problems, there are many small ways Lehigh students can lessen their carbon footprints.

Sahagian said it is important students try to drive less, use reusable water bottles and always recycle.

As an environmentalist, Sahagian said it is difficult to watch students as they thoughtlessly drive down the Hill to work out at the gym when they could easily walk.

But unnecessary driving is not the only way some students are wasting fossil fuels. Most people do not understand how much energy is required to produce a plastic bottle of water, Sahagian said. Manufacturers use fossil fuels when creating plastic, and additional fuel is used when shipping the bottles to consumers.

Sahagian also stressed that Bethlehem's tap water comes from the Pocono Mountains, so there is really no reason to shell out for spring water when students can get it for free by just turning on the faucet.

Recycling at Lehigh is also a primary concern for Sahagian.

"We need to make sure we keep our recycling containers [full of] just recyclables," Sahagian said. "When you throw a piece of pizza into a recycle bin, it all becomes trash, and that's horrible."

Students can make other minor changes to help create a sustainable earth.

The Web site for Sustainable Environment for Quality of Life offers a list of 100 ways to help protect the environment through reducing energy consumption and waste production. Many of the tips involve turning the heat down.

The site recommends lowering water heater temperatures to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

The site also recommends setting thermostats to 78 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter. Setting refrigerators to 36 - 38 degrees Fahrenheit and freezers to 0 - 5 degrees Fahrenheit will also save energy.

To conserve electricity, the site recommends buying compact fluorescent light bulbs, and turning off or unplugging appliances when not in use, especially cell phone chargers.

SEQL recommends using warm or cold water instead of hot when doing laundry. Cleaning the lint filter in the dryer after every load will also result in less energy consumption. And when possible, use a clothesline instead of the dryer. According to Time Magazine's series on "51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment," 60 percent of the energy associated with a piece of clothing is spent washing and drying it.

Time also recommends buying vintage clothes to avoid consuming the energy involved in producing and shipping new items.

Students should also either reuse grocery bags or bring a tote bag to put groceries in. More than 500 billion plastic shopping bags are distributed in the U.S. each year, according to Time.



The bags, which are typically made of polyethylene, can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills, and they emit harmful greenhouse gases.

When filling up your new reusable grocery bags, think about where the items you are buying come from.

Buying fruit, vegetables, meat and milk produced closer to home rack up fewer "petroleum miles" than products trucked across the country.

Sahagian said he hopes students take these simple steps to living a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle, but that no one can force students to go green.

In his classes, Sahagian said he does not try to tell students what to do. Instead, he tries to instill an understanding of how the environment works in terms of actions and consequences, forces and responses. The rest is up to the students, he said.

"They need to find a way to carry on that knowledge and understanding to their future workplaces and their future families to minimize their environmental impact," Sahagian said.