NSBE - November/December 2008 - (Page 44)

THInKInG GREEN We’d Better Understand By Pamela R. Bingham I n 1993, almost 100 Annual National Convention-goers participated in NSBE’s first environmental workshop, organized by Temple University professor and former NSBE National Secretary Adrienne Cooper, Ph.D. Two years later, I held a NSBE regional workshop titled, “It’s A Green Thing You’d Better Understand,” a name adopted from a 1980s campus slogan, “It’s A Black Thing You Wouldn’t Understand.” Today, the title of my workshop reflects a new, common awareness that our Earth does not have infinite resources and that we are changing our climate in ways that could greatly impact human life. But is the average NSBE member living “black, brown and green”? Two events that greatly impacted my interest in science and engineering were the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, which terrified “…The environmental discussion is a ‘green thing’ and a ‘black thing.’ Being ‘green’ is a health thing.” Americans about nuclear energy, and the barge of excess New York garbage that no jurisdiction wanted to accept, in 1987. Note that the garbage nearly ended up in a poor area of the Caribbean among people of color, a fact that reinforces my point that the environmental discussion is a “green thing” and a “black thing.” Being “green” is a health thing. It is important to note that African Americans have long been “green,” with our history of slavery and sharecropping, poverty-bred frugality and a culture that encouraged environmental protection. After Native Americans, who, as a group, have always respected and been close to the land in a holistic way, African-American folks were among the first recyclers and unquestionable caretakers of this land. Our forefathers ate scraps and almost every part of an animal (Southerners, how do you think we got chit’lins and pork skins? Recycling!). To survive, we tended the land for maximum yield and for appropriate recovery, employing practices such as composting, crop rotation and natural pesticides. 44 • november/december 2008 • Today, as engineers, we have a responsibility to consider all possible dangers of the products we develop and use and of the services we provide. The “cradle to cradle” concept of a product lifecycle prescribes that at the end of a product’s useful life, it will decompose entirely with no negative environmental impact or be recycled into a new product. Hazardous waste facilities are disproportionately situated in minority and/ or low-income neighborhoods. These facilities include landfills where old computers, gaming systems, cell phones and other electronic devices with hazardous semiconductor components are dumped. Have we thought about how to recycle the millions of analogue televisions that will become unusable after the February 2009 digital TV transition? How is NSBE offsetting its “carbon footprint” to slow climate change? What amount of greenhouse gases will be produced in 2008–09 as NSBE members drive and fly to regional conferences and the Annual National Convention in Las Vegas? In the West, farmers, ranchers, Native American reservations and large developing cities, including Las Vegas and Phoenix, are having “water wars.” How will NSBE members contribute to water conservation in Las Vegas? Being green is also about your wallet. Students living off-campus are more sensitive to utility bills, which they pay directly. However, students living on-campus should be sensitive, as well, since energy costs directly affect colleges and universities and the amount of your tuition. How can you help your school reduce its energy usage? “Being green” involves making decisions in every aspect of our lives and developing practices such as recycling; energy conservation; use of bikes and mass transit and reduction of greenhouse gases; sustainable agriculture; green building; green economics; development of sustainable environmental policy; and even exercise and preventative/holistic health care. See the online version of this article on www. nsbe.org for a list of ways to “get green”! ■ Pamela R. Bingham is owner of Bingham Consulting Services and a member of the NSBE Alumni Extension Environmental Engineering Special Interest Group. www.nsbe.org http://www.nsbe.org http://www.nsbe.org http://www.nsbe.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NSBE - November/December 2008

NSBE - November/December 2008
Contents
How We Got Over
Obama Wins!
LaTanjia Robinson of Aerojet
Membership News: You Did It Again!
Cash In Your GPA!
NSBE-AE Signs On
Growing from One Love
New York Renaissance
Toronto Welcomes NSBE Convention Planners
Regional Officer Reconnects in Ghana
Texas A&M - College Station, NSBE's Distinguished Chpater of the Year
Lifetime Members: 118 and Counting!
NSBE Midshipmen
Vision and Change
The AE Niche
Thinking Green
Blacks in Computer Science: The Secrets of Their Success
NSBE Calendar
AE Programs Address Critical Goals
AE Members on the Move
Making Games for the Masses
Advertisers Index

NSBE - November/December 2008