My time here at the Iowa Global Warming Campaign is winding down as I get ready to travel back to Illinois for the summer. I’ve been given so many opportunities while working here, from engaging with the community to meeting representatives from other environmental organizations to actually getting to write about issues, which is what I’ve always wanted to do. Still, I think just being involved in our work to get passenger rail in Iowa and to get clean energy and energy efficiency legislation passed has been invaluably beneficial for me. It’s allowed me to really understand how everything fits together. Though Drake does an excellent job in showing students how their education applies to the real world, it’s easy as a student to become absorbed in what we are learning in the classroom and forget about the connectedness of things. I feel like I’ll leave here for the summer understanding this better than ever.

Whether their issue is global warming or anything else, those who work to help the environment have so much to take into account. Though it would be nice to focus solely on the environment, this simply isn’t possible. Environmental issues cannot be separated from issues concerning such things as the economy and human health, just to name a couple. What I’ve learned, though, is that this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Making changes to benefit the environment can have a rippling effect and benefit so many other areas.

Where I learned this best was through our work to get a passenger rail line from Chicago to Des Moines. When I heard about this project, the first though that came to my mind were the environmental benefits that would accompany it. Trains are much more energy efficient than other modes of transportation and allow large groups of people to travel together, rather than each person burning gas in his or her own car. What I learned when I began to work with the Iowa Global Warming Campaign to get funding to make this project a reality was that passenger rail is not just good for the environment but benefits everyone.

Rail is vital in our fight against global warming, but it is also vital in stimulating our economy. It creates jobs and brings young professionals to Iowa. It is also more convenient than traveling by car or airplane and by creating a link between Illinois and Iowa, we are working to create an entire Midwest economic network.

What I realized after seeing how rail could benefit much more than just the environment was that environmental issues do not have to, and should not, be separated from other issues. Those who claim that too much attention paid to the environment is harmful to economic growth are simply not thinking broadly enough. The issue of global warming can be overwhelming, but we already know what steps we can take to fix it. Increased energy efficiency and the development of renewable energy will cut down on heat trapping gases. These technologies are also a step into a new global economy for the twenty-first century, one that is grounded in efficiency.

Understanding this relationship between the environment and other areas will be vital for me as I continue my work here next fall and in whatever work I do after graduation. This understanding, though, is important for everyone. We automatically separate our world into categories (environment, economy, human rights, etc.) but being able to see how they are all unavoidably tied is vital.

One of the best parts about working on the rail project was that we were able to attain the needed state funding for it before I left. This just shows me that more and more people are beginning to understand how that which benefits the environment benefits us all. I’m happy that by informing people about rail, I had a small part to play in bringing about this realization. I hope to work in the future to inform more people about the broad reaching benefits of environmental legislation. 

Well, I think I’m finally coming back down from the events of the weekend. Last Saturday, the 28, Drake held the first ever Iowa Earth Summit, where students from the environmental organizations of Iowa colleges and universities came together to talk about issues, learn how to become stronger organizations and most importantly build a statewide coalition of students concerned about the environment. After months of work and planning, the members of the Drake Environmental Action League (DEAL) and I can breathe a sigh of relief.

DEAL as a group first came up with the idea last semester. Sitting around at one of our Wednesday night meetings, we talked about how student environmental organizations in other states had come together to build a coalition. Why couldn’t we? So we contacted the environmental groups of other Iowa schools, who were just as enthusiastic as we were. We went about planning informational sessions and contacting speakers and, finally, last Saturday we saw our work pay off.

For its first year, Iowa Earth Summit was highly successful. With much help from Juliana Williams, the Great Plains Organizer for the Sierra Student Coalition, we were able to bring together 12 Iowa colleges and universities including Drake. About 75 students joined with about 15 to 20 of us from Drake.

Once everyone was together in the Olmsted Center of Drake, it was time for lunch. Our dining service, Sodexo, worked hard to ensure that both lunch and dinner were comprised entirely of food that was organic, local, or both. During lunch, we were privileged to hear talks from Ed Fallon, who served on the Iowa General Assembly from 1993 to 2006 and was a candidate for governor and US Congress, as well as Rich Leopold, director of the Iowa DNR.

Fallon emphasized taking small steps toward change and Leopold discussed how as the director of the DNR he has had to work within the “system” to accomplish goals. Hearing from two people who had devoted much of their lives to environmental concerns was inspiring to a room of people who are just setting out on this mission.

After lunch, students were able to split up among four rooms for informational sessions. The sessions went on for about an hour and after a small break, students could attend one more session. The topics discussed ranged from how to be an effective leader to engaging the community to environmental justice and were led by students, professors and guests, like ELPC’s own Andrew Snow. Discussion within every session was encouraged and students from each school were able to learn from session leaders as well as from one another.

And this was perhaps the most important part of the day, that students from different schools learned from one another. There were schools of every size represented and both environmental organizations that had high membership and those just starting out were present. After the sessions, each school was asked to take part in an informational fair, where most school presented a poster highlighting what their group had been working on. We were able to exchange ideas about effective activities and just talk about what matters to us.

After another sustainable meal for dinner, we were able to finish the day by using the connections we had all made during the day and put them to work. The goal of Earth Summit was not simply to get everyone into one room and then leave and go about our lives. We wanted the connections we made to be lasting and useful. This is where the coalition building took place. We discussed how we were going to keep in touch, first through Facebook and later by having our own website. Students volunteered to be in charge of communicating with those from the other schools and to be part of a temporary “steering committee” to lead us in accomplishing our goals. We talked about communicating with the media, the public and lawmakers. We committed to a retreat fall of next year as well as holding another summit in the spring. Since Earth Summit, we have already been in communication with one another.

What was so exciting about Earth Summit was seeing so many students in the same room, motivated toward a single goal. We all want to help each other with planning our individual campus events as well as join together to work on issues that unite us. I have always been proud of what DEAL has accomplished on Drake’s campus, but when I looked at everyone at the summit, I was overcome with how powerful we could be as a united force. The fact that so many students committed to Earth Summit and that each individual made a significant contribution to the day makes it almost impossible for me to become doubtful about the future in our hands. I can’t help but be proud of my generation.

-Laura