Henny Penny was wrong: The sky is not falling; like the Wicked Witch of the West, it’s melting. And only the scientifically illiterate deny that we’re causing this problem, and exacerbating it with simple waste.

Clay Burell’s written a provocative entry in response to the LA Times’s coverage of the Green University Pledge. Basically, a ton of colleges and universities have committed to taking real steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on their campuses. Clay wonders when K-12 schools are going to join them.

When I look around my school, I see endless opportunities for conservation (please note that none of the following is meant to disparage the hard-working custodial staff, who work tirelessly to fix and clean what they can and are generally awesome people). First, the building is a fuel waster. It was built back in the 70s with windows that can’t open, so all climate control comes via a collossal HVAC system that a) does a poor job of regulating temperature consistently, b) spreads germs like crazy (it’s like working on a 747), and c) consumes huge amounts of energy. With some exterior doors always propped, heated and cooled air leaks out of this place at an alarming rate. It’s gotten to the point where I need to bring my classes outside on some afternoons because the classroom has become too hot and humid to make any work possible. A couple of the Environmental Action Team members looked into a biodiesel retrofitting for the HVAC system, but unfortunately nothing came of it.

There’s also a lot of physical waste and garbage in a school. I tell my students that when archaeologists excavate our civilization a few thousand years from now, they’ll call us the Poland Spring People. I still don’t understand the popularity of bottled water in a society in which a) tap water is safe and delicious and b) there are plenty of working water fountains. I’m a thirsty guy, and I try to keep myself hydrated at all times. A couple of years ago, I dropped $10 on a 32 oz Nalgene bottle that I can fill from my tap at home or the water fountain at school. I’ve had that same bottle ever since. When it gets funky, I wash it. I refill it a couple of times a day. I keep it clipped to my school bag for portability’s sake. It’s great. The GHS Environmental Action Team, back when they existed, tried to sell the bottles as a way to cut down on the number of Poland Spring bottles sold in the cafeteria, to little avail. If the club is revived in the fall (it’s been dormant, but there are rumblings) we’ve got plenty of bottles in storage that can be sold for cheap. Of course, the food service will make a lot less money (what’s the markup on water, like 100%?), so that’ll be a problem. We better make sure we pass the state exams next time so we get fully funded.

My goal this summer is to reconfigure my classes so they’re as paperless as possible. Any tips anyone can give me along those lines will be huge. I learned yesterday that students should have digital lockers when they arrive in the fall, which will be a huge help in this regard. Although I need as many copy paper boxes as I can for my move at the end of June, I’d love to be able to say that through my own actions, I greatly reduced the paper consumption of the school.

Our conspicuous consumption has moved beyond offensive and toward the realm of dangerous. When students (and teachers) who live within a half a mile of the school drive even when it’s 75 and sunny, that’s dangerous. When the plastic water bottles are ankle-deep on the cafeteria floor at the end of the day, that’s dangerous. When our behemoth HVAC system rumbles to life for yet another futile day of trying to keep the school well-ventilated, that’s dangerous.

I challenge anyone at GHS who is reading this to help make our school less environmentally scary next year. Let’s start by making less of a mess in the Student Center, in the classrooms, in the halls, and outside. Throwing a bunch of trash on the ground for a custodian to pick up means that that custodian’s going to be able to spend that much less time fixing the AC and stopping inefficient air leaks. Stop buying water bottles every time you need a drink. If you must have the bottle (and I admit, they’re aesthetically quite pleasing), buy one on Monday and use it for the week before you recycle it. Carpool (egads!). Show some pride and some humility; stop assuming someone’s going to clean up the building, or the planet, after you.

Please?