Climate
How should DePauw operate and educate in a warming world?
ON SEPTEMBER 15TH 2008, PRESIDENT BRIAN CASEY SIGNED THE ACU-PCC, pledging responsibility for how DePauw educates its students and interacts with the environment in an era of rapid climate change.
As a signatory of the American Colleges and Universities President's Climate Commitment (ACU-PCC), DePauw is committed to monitor our greenhouse gas emissions, educate our students about our role individual and institutional roles in climate change, and reduce our net emissions to zero by 2040.
"As a member institution of the PCC, we must exercise leadership in our community, and throughout society, by modeling ways to minimize global warming emissions. We must also graduate students who are not only aware of our responsibilities to the environment but who can serve as leaders as we work to solve this century's economic, social and ecological challenges." -President Brian Casey
Our Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2011
Greenhouse Gas Inventory began in 2009. Our first report and detailled information on how the data is collected can be found here. Our previous reports can all be found on the ACU-PCC's website: DePauw's Submissions to the ACU-PCC Reporting System.
Climate Change Research
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - reports from the international authority on climate science
- Realclimate.org - climate news from the climate scientists
- Globalchange.gov - The United States Global Change Research team began in 1989 and continues to research climate change worldwide.
Glossary
ACU-PCC - n. signed by over 600 American colleges and universities, the American Colleges and Universities President's Climate Commitment is an effort to mitigate global climate disruption undertaken by a network of colleges and universities that have made commitments to eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions from campus operations and to promote the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth's climate
Climate Change - n. the human-caused heating of the Earth and destabilization of climate patterns due to burning fossil fuels and land use change, both of which have accelerated since industrialization began in the mid-1800s
Greenhouse Gas Emissions - n. heat-trapping gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and others released due to natural and human from human activities