On September 20, 2019, concerned citizens worldwide held a “Climate Strike” and protested to draw attention to the current climate crisis. The event was lead by young people inspired in part by the school strike for climate change initiated by Greta Thunberg.
Princeton High School junior and environmental activist Martin Mastnak helped organize the local event at Hinds Plaza in Princeton.
Mastnak says that over time he has come to realize global climate change’s severity and has been moved to action. He has joined groups like the Princeton Student Climate Initiative and New Jersey Student Climate Advocates. Additionally, he manages the Fridays for Future New Jersey Instagram account.
Mastnak worked with a number of classmates to organize the “Climate Strike” event at Hinds Plaza on September 20. At the event, Mastnak gave a speech condemning big business conglomerates like Koch Industries and Exxon Mobil who are considered to be major polluters and who downplay or even deny the problem of climate change.
In a recent interview, Mastnak characterized the Princeton event as “very energetic.”
He continued, “Seeing around three, four, five hundred people walking around was a big shock for me. I wasn’t expecting such a big turnout.”
Princeton youth aren’t the only locals responding to the climate change crisis. Many of Mercer County Community College’s staff and faculty also have campus sustainability on their minds.
One notable effort to promote campus sustainability is Mercer’s solar farm.
According to Bryon Marshall, Mercer’s Director of College Safety and Facilities, the project’s construction began in December 2011 and was completed in October 2013.
A display in the Student Center provides statistics about the solar farm indicating it has generated 43,859,331 kilowatt-hours of energy since its completion, equating to 31,490 tons of CO2, which equals 3,552,605 gallons of gasoline.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator says that those 43,859,331 kilowatt-hours actually equate to 3,489,948 gallons of gasoline, that is 62,657 fewer gallons than the estimate provided in the college’s display.
Nevertheless, the solar program has had a measurable impact, whereas campus recycling has proved more challenging.
Professor Amy Ricco, coordinator of the Ornamental Horticulture and Plant Science programs, served as head of Mercer’s Sustainability Committee but stepped down as 2016.
She says “I felt that we, as a committee, couldn’t accomplish basic tasks…I still feel like the college doesn’t recycle properly.”
According to Marshall, Mercer employs a single-stream model of recycling collection and processing, meaning one where all recyclables are placed into a single bin and are then taken to materials recovery facilities where they are sorted and prepared to be reused.
A VOICE article from May 2019 suggests that the recycling bins around campus are organized in such a way that they often collect a substantial amount of regular trash that does not actually qualify for recycling.
When it comes to making the Student Center sustainable, the President of MCCC, Dr. Jianping Wang says, “We want [to] make it bright…but not very energy-costing, so we designed it in such a way that [the building] absorb[s] the daylight at the maximum….So instead of [having] lighting, it will be natural light.”
Third-year Liberal Arts major Heidy Montes suggests that in the Student Center Cafeteria “replacing plastic utensils with biodegradable utensils…would be more sustainable.”
Marshall sees another opportunity saying, “I believe the movement to paperless records and documents represents a large item on the to-do list.” He adds, “The College, at large, needs to continue to explore and investigate [environmentally-friendly] alternatives, product specifications, and choices to provide for a more sustainable future.”
Institutional changes and grassroots activism are two responses to the issue of climate change.
Mastnak says that his hope is “to bring about some sort of meaningful and impactful change that will allow for our children and our grandchildren to grow up in a world where they don’t have to worry about the impacts of pollution…we want to transition to a greener future and a more liveable [and] more sustainable future.”
