
{"id":8934,"date":"2010-02-04T10:52:41","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T18:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=8934"},"modified":"2010-02-04T13:31:39","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T21:31:39","slug":"scientists-students-sierra-club-call-on-unc-to-drop-coal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/02\/04\/scientists-students-sierra-club-call-on-unc-to-drop-coal\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists, students, Sierra Club call on UNC to drop coal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Kirk Ross<\/strong><em><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With the smokestacks and coal silos of the UNC co-generation plant as a backdrop, climate change researcher James Hansen joined students, university scientists and members of the Sierra Club\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Coal Free Campus campaign on Tuesday to ask the university to end the use of coal at the plant.<\/p>\n<p>Jos\u00c3\u00a9 Rial, a professor in the department of geological sciences, said his work in the Arctic compelled him to speak out. A glaciologist, Rial said he has seen new research that shows an even faster sea level rise than previously predicted.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know about this plant,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, gesturing to the Cameron Avenue facility, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but I know what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening in the arctic as a consequence of thousands of plants like these.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Stewart Boss, a freshman at UNC and one of the local organizers of the coal-free campus campaign, said he wants to see UNC maintain its leadership in environmental responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>Future generations will hold today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leaders responsible, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Pat Leighton, who lives near the co-generation plant, noted that Duke University cut its coal consumption by 70 percent last year, while UNC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan calls for phasing out 20 percent of its coal use by 2025.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to see UNC compete with Duke in this arena as well as on the basketball court,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Leighton said.<\/p>\n<p>The university released a Climate Action Plan in September of last year. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s near-term strategy called for replacing 20 percent of coal with torrefied wood or another coal substitute.<\/p>\n<p>And while the plan, and the fact that the school had developed a strategy, drew praise, environmentalists raised concerns that it did not go far enough.<\/p>\n<p>Hansen said the focus on coal makes sense because of how dirty a fuel it is and the degradation that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been caused by mining practices \u00e2\u20ac\u201d especially mountaintop removal in Appalachia \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and because much cleaner alternatives are available.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Global climate change,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u009dis an issue of intergenerational injustice.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The United States, he said, must be a leader among developed countries in ending coal use.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We really need to take the lead in phasing out coal, and our universities should be taking the lead in that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hansen said.<\/p>\n<p>Hansen was on campus as part of a speaking tour on climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to his visit, UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp announced a new 35-member energy task force headed up by Tim Toben, who is developing the Greenbridge project and is chair of the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Energy Policy Council.<\/p>\n<p>The task force has been charged with evaluating UNC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s carbon-reduction plans and learning what other universities are doing.<\/p>\n<p>Hansen said he was encouraged by the new task force.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am heartened that the university is responding in a positive way,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kirk Ross Staff Writer With the smokestacks and coal silos of the UNC co-generation plant as a backdrop, climate change researcher James Hansen joined students, university scientists and members of the Sierra Club\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Coal Free Campus campaign on Tuesday to ask the university to end the use of coal at the plant. Jos\u00c3\u00a9 Rial, a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8934"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8942,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8934\/revisions\/8942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}