Students offer solutions to global warming

By Rosalind Essig

UK students and thousands of others across the United States will get a chance to “chill out” tonight and learn about youth-inspired approaches to solving global warming.

As part of Earthdays in the Bluegrass, UK will broadcast the results of a nationwide contest titled “Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming” in Memorial Hall at 7. College students submitted their efforts toward making their campuses more sustainable.

UK did not participate in the contest, but it will broadcast the winning entries that were voted for on YouTube.com and more than 180 sites from around the country.

Last year’s winners established student fees to fund sustainability projects, installed energy-saving software on computers and finished the largest solar panel installation east of the Mississippi River.

Residence Life Recycling and Greenthumb, a student environmental organization, are hosting the event as part of a month long series of environmental awareness events in April.

Caroline Messerschmidt, a dietetics senior and assistant coordinator of Residence Life Recycling, said the broadcast focuses on different campus efforts to be more environmentally friendly and will help generate more ideas and solutions.

College students can prevent further effects of global warming by changing everyday habits and using their voices, not just sitting back and watching things happen, Messerschmidt said.

Before the broadcast, Earthdays in the Bluegrass will host a concert starting at 6 p.m. outside Memorial Hall. The concert will feature the Red State Ramblers and Clack Mountain String Band.