Last week Wednesday, a panel of professors from Cornell answered various questions about the environment. Professors Shanjun Li, Greg Poe, and David Wolfe answered many questions with topics ranging from energy sources to environmental activism. Each professor specialized in a different part of environmental science and it was interesting to see the three of them tackle questions from different views.
Despite having different specialties, they all shared the same core message that every environmental action can be analyzed through its costs and benefits. This was a very new idea to me, as I have always thought of environmental activities as very black or white. Either activity ‘X’ is bad for the environment or activity ‘X’ is good for the environment. After attending this event, I learned that this is not always the case and that there are some grey areas. For example, while fracking may have negative consequences on the environment, it releases a lot less carbon than the burning of coal. People need to get their energy from somewhere so would we rather use fracking or coal.
Another topic that I enjoyed was the topic about environmental activism. The overall theme with environmental activism is that there is a lot of concern over the environment but not much is being done. When asked by the panel if any of us were concerned about the environment, everyone in the audience raised their hand. However, when asked if any of us participated in activities to help the environment, only a couple of people raised their hand. I was guilty of not raising my hand for the latter question and personally, I feel that the environmental problem is too large for me to make a difference. However, according to the panel, the easiest way to help the environment is to become educated on being environmental conscious and to spread this education wherever you go.
Overall, I thought that the event was good. I really enjoyed seeing the three professors working together and using their knowledge of different areas of environmental science to answer the audience’s questions. The Q&A format was also a nice change to the typical “presentation” or lecture format seen in most Rose Café events.