I first became acquainted with the publication How to be Environmental at Yale when it was placed on the coffee table in the common room by one of my suitemates. I would come across it daily and out of sheer curiosity I decided to glance through it. I found most of its suggestions to be innovative, creative, and efficient. Unfortunately, that it went untouched for so long is, I suspect, common. The publication is as inviting as the Undergraduate Regulations.
Its introduction begins with, "Being environmental at Yale is a lot easier than you might think....All you have to do is cultivate a few new habits." I see a contradiction here.
I admire the insight of the editors, but I am also wary of their idealism. Beckett once wrote, "Habit is the great deadener." A cursory recall of past personal history will for most of us show that changing habits is not easy - especially when we are not prompted to. Of course, environmentalism is an issue that most, if not all Yalies take seriously. The problem is not emphasizing enough real conservationism.
I have neither the ability nor the arrogance to analyze the psychology of Yalies toward environmentalism and then go on to generalize it, but let me try nevertheless. As a freshman, I have been inundated with information, making orientation quite disorienting. This information included several lectures on Yale's great tradition of recycling. The Green Cup was mentioned over and over again. Most of us were receptive to the idea of recyling. I was not keen, but I still thought it was a good idea.
My suite "recycles," but when I arrive back in the evening, the lights are on, and the stereo is playing. When I enter my room, the fan my roommate uses is on even if he isn't there. However, my suite recycles because Yale and the mass media say that that is enough - it is enough for my suitemates and the majority of Yale students. But it is not enough - not even barely enough.
My suitemates are sincere. After all, it was one of them, not I, who brought How to be Environmental at Yale back to our suite. They recycle religiously. I suspect that most, if not all of Yale's students are equally sincere. The value of winning the Green Cup should even be increased significantly, considering how much the University would save once students develop the habit of consuming less. The key here is simple: less is better and cheaper. It will be hard, but the easy worthwhile struggle does not exist.
What is necessary is a reevaluation of the current problem. Recycling may have been a serious problem back in the '80s, but now it is commonplace. With the amelioration of the recycling problem, why continue to spend resources on it? Recycling is the simplest thing we could do and still have our conscience mollified. Nothing is simple though - especially when addressing a question as serious as environmental degradation. Never mind that reducing and reusing are by far more effective conservation methods than recycling could ever be. Never mind that while Yalies are recyling, they are prodigiously consuming electricity, heat, and water. Of course, this is all pointed out eloquently and succinctly in How to be Environmental at Yale. It seems absurd that the importance of the issues addressed in that book be relegated to one publication, while recycling is paraded and stamped into our minds as the solution to the environmental problem.
The Green Cup is designed as the incentive, the prompt for Yalies to recycle. Habit may be the great deadener, but its dullness of direction can be sharpened and altered with effort and precision. My suggestion: change the rules for the Green Cup by using water and heat consumption per person as additional criteria.
Arnold once wrote about seeing things in pieces so that we may see them whole. Let us deal with the many problems piece by piece in order to see the solution whole.
Qui Chiang is a freshman in Jonathan Edwards College.
Copyright 1995, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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