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Jennifer Walker Caught Green Handed

Student Jennifer Walker was caught attending an event on campus about sea level rise

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Jennifer at the Climate Change, Law, and Politics panel

Hometown: Media, Pennsylvania    Year: JuniorJennifer was caught attending the Climate Change, Law, and Politics panel discussion in Old Chem on November 14.  The panel discussed the recent outlaw of sea level rise data for climate change by the North Carolina legislator as a jumping off point for discussing differences between science, policy, and politics. What made you interested in this event?I'm an EOS major, so I'm very interested in the environment.  I'm also in Global Warming with Alex Glass right now.  I've been interested in climate change for a while now, and it's come up in a lot of my classes.Why do you think these types of talks are important? I think people get confused about climate change because they look at short-term events, like "Oh it's really cold outside today, there's no global warming," but they're not looking at the long-term trends.  It's good to get people educated about whole-scale, humanity, globally, what's going on with temperature and climate change.Do you already know a lot about environmental policy, or are you coming here to learn more?I know a little bit about it because I'm in the class and I did some work with sea level rise on coastal areas, so I know Orrin H. Pilkey, and what he's talking about with sea level rise in North Carolina.  With the North Carolina legislature and everything, so I know a little bit, but obviously today I'll be learning more.What other things do you do in your everyday life to be sustainable?Definitely alternative transportation. I try to ride my bike places and do a lot with waste as well; I try not to use plastics and that kind of thing.What sustainable efforts have you noticed around campus?With waste I think, people are trying to get people into recycling.  I know they have the EcoOlympics with the freshmen, and that's a big deal.  I also feel like not as many people as I would like know about this kind of stuff.If you could change one thing on campus to make it more sustainable, what would it be?Increasing education and having more events and getting people involved to learn about what they can do.  A lot of things seem localized in the groups that already want things to be more sustainable, while a lot of people don't know what’s going on.  I think this [event] is really good, but trying to get events out there more, more signs and more publicity would be good. Do you usually go to the sustainable events on campus?Not too many, not as much as I would like.Jennifer was given a Sustainability Department thermos.Will you be caught green handed next? Caught Green Handed is an initiative of Students for Sustainable Living created to reward sustainability actions at Duke. Get caught doing something eco-friendly, and receive great prizes including t-shirts, stainless steel water bottles and reusable grocery bags!  It's simple, just take actions throughout the day to reduce your environmental footprint and with a little luck, you could be Caught Green Handed! The contest will continue on a twice monthly basis throughout the fall semester.