Global warming is a concern for scientists and politicians alike. (Pixabay)
On September 11, the EPA announced yet another proposed change to the rules and regulations set into place during the Obama-era to combat climate change. In an official statement, EPA Acting Director Andrew Wheeler claimed that the “common sense reforms” targeted at relaxing regulations on methane emission from oil and gas drilling leaks would help save the industry hundreds of millions while increasing domestic energy production.
This announcement comes at no surprise. After all, the trademark of the Trump-era EPA has been overturning policies created to fight global warming in favor of looser regulations beneficial to the energy industry. In the past three months alone, two major steps have been taken to roll back on emissions regulations, with this new proposal marking the third.
Since the administration shows no signs of letting up on its slashing of existing environmental regulations, it’s our duty as responsible citizens to do everything we can to help the environment here at Columbus Academy.
Under the leadership of our Service Board recycling coordinators, the Academy community has perennially followed the guidelines of reduce-recycle-reuse. Bolstered by water bottle challenges that encourage students to ditch plastic water bottles in favor of reusable ones, we are on the right track to doing our part in conserving the environment.
In addition to these existing practices, many efforts have been also been made to teach community members about the environment on Columbus Academy’s 231-acre campus. The community ecology project in Mr. Davis’s biology class is an annual highlight of freshmen year, exposing students to the multitude of wildlife living on our school grounds.
In a further effort to welcome our extended community to join us in appreciating and studying the natural environment of Academy, last year, Mrs. Soderberg proposed the exciting prospect of making our campus a designated arboretum. The official designation has been set to happen this year, offering a much-needed opportunity to study and preserve Academy’s natural environment and share it with our community.
Beyond learning about the importance of conserving the flora and fauna of Academy, we have greatly reduced negative impacts on the environment through the food pulper in the dining hall. With more than a thousand individuals eating at the cafeteria each day, using a pulper in the dish room has allowed us to reduce the food waste accumulated on a daily basis. Starting last year, our school has partnered with Organic Innovations to turn the pulped waste into compost, helping us further decrease our contribution to landfills.
The culmination of these various efforts our school makes to better the natural spaces surrounding us has the potential to take shape in the Peck greenhouse and garden. In these spaces, we can appreciate our natural environment and cultivate plants with sustainable soil produced from our composted food waste.
In response to the less-than-exemplary actions of our nation’s environmental leadership, the Academy community must continue taking matters into our own hands by emphasizing our existing environmentally-friendly programs and coupling them with new ones targeting sustainability.
