Quadblogger

In true academic fashion, the good folks at Cornell have decided the best way to tackle the S-word – sustainability – is to put the best minds to work. Quad Blogger had the fortune to stumble upon a Cornell Chronicle article about just such efforts. Biddy Martin has just announced that Frank DiSalvo is the interim director of the new Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future. QB will stay tuned for further development on that front.

True to form, Cornell will spend money and human capital attempting to solve the worst problems of sustainability – you know, making amends for the shameful way we humans have trashed the Earth through generations of industrial and technological revolution. Getting us off the oil IV drip by creating cheap and efficient alternative energy sources.

But some concepts are a little more, well, obvious. Walking around the throngs of new students at orientation this year, QB couldn’t help but notice the Cornell bottled water. It was everywhere – disposable plastic bottles emblazoned with the Cornell logo and a picture of the Cornell mascot.

The bottled water is a ubiquitous sight on campus. Cornell’s illustrious trustees quench their throats with it at meetings held periodically on campus. The same is true at athletic events, meetings, lectures, symposia. The bottles are everywhere. Call up the Cornell Dairy Bar. Order 20 cases. So easy!

QB next points to a recent opinion article also published in the Chronicle, adapted from an Albany Times Union column. Jennifer Wilkins of Cornell’s nutritional sciences division says Americans have an unquenchable thirst for bottled water and soda. Equally wacky is the amount of carbon dioxide eventually spewed into the atmosphere to make, transport and cool such bottles.

What a concept! Bottled water bad for environment. Cornell bottled water everywhere. How about turning on the tap? QB loves free stuff – like the pencils and stuff at job fairs. Tap water is the best free stuff on Earth.