Friday, August 13, 2010

A cautionary: Equipment donation

NyTimes had a slideshow on E-Waste.

"The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary 
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, agreed to in 1989 and now adopted 
by a majority of nations, was meant to stop the dumping of toxic waste in poor 
countries. But rules get complicated when the waste arrives as a gift"

We're working on getting the Medical school to donate its surplus medical equipment and have to be very careful that we're not simply gift wrapping trash.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Wash U Hosts "The Great Coal Debate"

St. Louis is a good place to talk about coal. According to the US Energy Information Administration, 83.5% of the state's energy comes from the black rock, making it one of the nation's brownest states. St. Louis is home to the corporate headquarters of the two largest American coal extraction companies, Peabody Energy, and Arch Coal.

With the CEOs of both Peabody Energy and Arch Coal on Wash U's board of trustees, as well as a heavily-funded coal energy research group, Washington University in St. Louis is a good place to talk about coal as well.

To continue campus dialogue on the role of coal in our future, Student Union will be hosting a debate between Fred Palmer, VP of Governmental Relations at Peabody Energy and Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. They will be debating the role of coal in our future in a discussion moderated by Bryan Walsh of Time Magazine. The event will take place at Graham Chapel on Wash U's Danforth Campus. Following the debate there will be a reception in the nearby Danforth University Center's Tisch Commons.



We hope you can join us for this exciting discussion on the viability of continued use of coal.