Wendy Kaczerski of Princeton Environmental Commission
I was honored to open the Princeton Public Library’s second annual film festival on January 2 as the new chair of the Princeton Environmental Commission (PEC), which has embarked on several initiatives recently to help make Princeton a sustainable community. One of our goals is to increase the community’s ability to connect the dots between our daily actions and how they affect the regional, national and global environment, Kudos to Susan Conlon, Teen Services Librarian and organizer of the festival, for doing a superb job in programming the festival to help us make those connections and inspire us to take action to reduce our impact. The PEC is thrilled that the library has taken on the mantle of environmental education by making this festival an annual event.
We now know that unless we act quickly, the world as we know it will change. We and the next generation must make wiser choices about what we want and what we need. Our nation consumes 32 times the amount of other countries. On average, each person in the U.S. produces five tons of carbon dioxide/year — five times the global per person average. Mostly, we produce it through the traveling in our cars and airplanes, heating our homes and buildings, and using electricity. As world population rises and more countries become developed, natural resources will become more and more depleted — we already have depleted fisheries and vanishing pollinating bee colonies. Undoubtedly, the promise of green technologies and human ingenuity will address pieces of the problem, but we likely are in for some tough choices ahead, many of which were brought to the forefront in the film festival.
For the first time in this country’s history, the population of the United States is greater in urban than in rural areas. That’s why it’s so important for us to work as communities to effect change.
According to our President, the free market will come up with solutions. According to scientists, leaving it to the free market may be too little, too late, especially regarding energy production.
The U.S. has 100 coal fired power plants, with 150 planned. There are plans to sequester the carbon underground, but the risks of doing so are not fully understood. Building more coal plants can pretty much eradicate most efforts to curb carbon dioxide emissions. Yet the federal energy bill passed in December does not include incentives for alternative energy production, except for ethanol production.
In this absence of national leadership, hundreds of municipalities across the country and the world are doing what we in Princeton are embarking upon – a concerted, formal effort to become sustainable through developing a Sustainable Community Plan of Action that involves all sectors of the community. For more information and to learn how you can get involved, go to: www.sustainableprinceton.org.
If you missed the film festival, many of the films are available on loan from the library.
Wendy Kaczerski, chair
Princeton Environmental
Commission
Chestnut Street
Princeton