am deeply concerned about the failure of our national leaders to articulate a meaningful and coherent sustainability policy for our nation's future. Giving speeches about voluntary restrictions on carbon emissions is not enough. In light of this failure, it is imperative that America's colleges and universities be leaders in promoting sustainability. (The steps that Swarthmore has taken are featured on the College's Sustainability Web site.)

The great work of this generation is to develop sustainable lifestyles that kick the habit of dependence on fossil fuels, the primary source of global climate change. So I designed this year's Environmental Studies capstone seminar to respond to the challenge of re-envisioning Swarthmore as a model of environmental campus leadership in a time of political crisis, global climate change, dwindling natural resources, and a massive loss of biodiversity across the planet.

The course is predicated on the assumption that urgent action is needed to reverse unprecedented environmental degradation in our time. As glaciers melt, sea levels worldwide could rise by more than 20 feet and flood shore communities from downtown Manhattan to Bangladesh. More than 30,000 plant and animal species a year are driven to extinction. Even the polar bear is now proposed as a threatened species.
  In designing the course, I wanted ethical intelligence at Swarthmore to "go green" and for the course to be an incubator for birthing new ideas about institutional campus sustainability. I also wanted student class members - based on their own areas of academic expertise and moral passions - to craft a master plan of environmental responsibility for the whole campus that was both inspirational and practical.

The course - The Green Campus: Swarthmore and Sustainability - was the anti-course. I didn't set a pre-determined agenda and didn't lecture. Instead, it was student-driven and vigorously discussion-based. Readings included academic studies of campus sustainability strategies along with works of imagination and vision. We researched sustainability philosophy and practice at different levels of the curriculum and administration. In addition, we evaluated current policies regarding, for example, energy efficiency, green building design, waste management, water conservation, sustainable transportation, and community-supported agriculture.

Students brought in outside experts to advise us, organized field trips, and ultimately wrote a sustainability plan. Together, we discussed how to make the plan compelling and applicable to the wider community. Now that the plan is complete, we are working to bring it into action on campus.