A renowned environmental expert spent this week lecturing to students and faculty at ASU about global warming and the benefits of sustainable energy.
Guy Dauncey, a self-employed Englishman who now lives in Canada, said the battle for renewable energy is like a modern civil rights movement.
“This battle is going to be as big as the fight to end slavery or get women the right to vote,” Dauncey said in an interview.
Dauncey stressed the importance of students becoming educated about global warming and “walking the talk” to set good examples for others who are unaware of the crisis.
“The concern is how many students actually know about all the environmental changes that are taking place right now,” Dauncey said.
College students should be required to take a sustainability class just like they are required to take a basic English or math class, he said.
Sustainability major Sandra Servat said she wants to start a group on campus to reach other non-sustainability majors and make them aware of the issues.
“[Dauncey] was very positive about climate change solutions,” Servat said, “And he emphasized that we are the generation that will suffer.”
The problem now, Dauncey said, is there are so many conflicting ideas about global warming that people don’t know what’s true and what’s not.
The confusion, he said, comes from fossil fuel advocates who are not willing to give up their positions in the energy field.
The renewable energy movement, he added, needs to become a grassroots movement. If the people can sway the politicians, then a change in energy production will come.
The technology and policies are in place for renewable energy to take off in the U.S. However, since the politicians aren’t on board, things are moving very slowly in the industry, he said.
“Fossil fuels are the launch ramp to renewable energy and once you have it you’ll never run out,” he said.
Eric Williams, an assistant professor in the Global School of Sustainability, said Dauncey’s view engages interest in the issue.
“It also polarizes the issue,” Williams said.
Williams said it is a one-sided and simplistic view that “climate change is the dominating issue to reorganize human society [that] can be solved with cheap and easy technologies without causing impacts on other issues.”
Dauncey warned that something must be done about the global warming crisis.
“Financially there is nothing more disastrous for the U.S. than continuing on with non-sustainable energy,” he said.
Reach the reporter at beth.easterbrook@asu.edu
