Russian friends delivered their gift of a birthday cake to our home March 7th. They rode bikes across town to make the presentation.
Whenever we see bike lanes in bustling Lafayette, do we remember the educational patience of Dr. Griff Blakewood, who died in 2014?
For over twenty years, he answered the phone: “This is Dr. Griff Blakewood, Dept. of Renewable Resources.” With his passing, ULL no longer provides an opening for students to explore renewable energy, a clear, certain global trend.
March 7th, the DAILY ADVERTISER carried an encouraging news item regarding one university course to be offered in environmental science. A phone number was given if anyone wanted more information. After talking with three persons it was apparent staff members were not fully informed on one subject.
The following day a message was left on our answering machine from the department head in response to my previous call. I simply asked if there would be anything offered to students in the area of renewable energy. The answer from the spokeswoman was a curt “No.”
I then asked if renewable energy would be a global trend. Her response was simply, “I do not know.”
As heat records are broken each year and our ocean rises, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin introduced legislation to eliminate unsavory language regarding climate change and global warming. Canada, the locus of tar sands, does not approve meteorologists using the term “global warming.” Tar sands oil is Earth’s worst offender.
Students who can’t afford cars will not lose bike lanes. How can they be deprived of education regarding their certain future amid nations pursuing renewable energy? USA students might ponder Costa Rica in our hemisphere will be carbon free by 2021. It is also the only nation without a military since 1948. Wars are fought over oil and in the future over diminishing water supplies are facts two local universities might inform aspiring students in this century.
