Call On Penn State to Commit to Zero Carbon Emissions!

Dear Penn Staters and all citizens,

We ask you to join us in calling on Penn State’s top administrators to clearly and firmly address human-caused climate change. This petition continues the work of the "Getting to Zero" carbon emissions conference, held on April 11, 2014. Thus far, the call from that conference has received little attention. However, with the rollout of the Clean Power Plan, Pope Francis urging the world to act, and the pending Paris climate summit, we believe that the time for Penn State to act is now.

The next few years are crucial in crafting an effective response, and Penn State can help transform this from a partisan, controversial topic into one where we all work together to find solutions.

We will deliver this petition and letter to President Barron, Provost Jones, and Senior Vice President of Finance and Business David Gray on December 1^st, 2015.

Please sign our petition. If you are a Penn Stater, please sign with the year you graduated and/or the position you hold. But as Penn State is a public land grant university, we hope that all concerned citizens will sign.

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Dear President Barron, Provost Jones, and Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gray:

We the undersigned recognize that human beings are disrupting the climate. As members of the most affluent and educated communities in history and among the most responsible for climate change, we recognize that we are called to protect the weakest among us, our descendants, and the biotic community. As a research university serving the commonwealth through its land grant mission, we are called to lead by example, demonstrating to our students, alumni, and the broader community how we can immediately and forcefully respond to this challenge.

Today, we renew a call sent to you by the 2014 Penn State "Getting to Zero" conference attendees. We urge the administration to do the following:

• President Barron should immediately create a task force to lead the community though the process of setting and implementing an appropriate “Getting to Zero” plan to be achieved by 2050 at the latest.


• Penn State’s administration should communicate its commitment to addressing anthropogenic climate change publicly, ideally through Penn State’s next Strategic Plan.


• Penn State’s administration should identify and revise policies that currently limit efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through its operations, purchasing, and investments and should integrate sustainability throughout its curriculum and culture.

Accelerating climate-related impacts make the urgency of this call very clear. We know that you understand the overwhelming evidence for anthropogenic climate change. Now is the time to stand together, recognize our moral responsibility, and use every tool among our vast resources to address the consequences. The possibilities for our entire community—students, staff, faculty, and the communities of our Commonwealth, nation and the world—are limited only by our hearts and imaginations.

We ask you to make the tough choices required of leadership, and we are ready to support you in implementing those decisions.

Respectfully, 

Jonathan Abel
Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Japanese

Gabeba Baderoon
Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and African Studies 

Mark Ballora
Associate Professor of Music Technology 

Paul Barsom
Associate Professor of Music 

Susannah Heyer Barsom
Sustainability Institute

Michael Bérubé
Director
Institute for the Arts and Humanities 

James Gordon Brasseur
Emeritus and Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering 

Jonathan Brockopp
Associate Professor of History and Religious Studies 

Elaine J Brzycki
Manager, Project Development
WPSU Penn State 

Peter Buckland

Sustainability Institute 

Darlene Clark
Senior Lecturer in Nursing
Women's Leadership Initiative Faculty Mentor 

Jamison E. Colburn
Professor of Law & Joseph H. Goldstein Faculty Scholar 

Stephen R. Couch
Professor of Sociology 

Joseph Cusumano
Professor of Engineering Science & Mechanics 

Kenneth J. Davis
Professor of Meteorology 

Scott DiLoreto
Greenhouse Manager, College of Agricultural Sciences 

Rosa A Eberly
Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences and English 

James Eisenstein
Professor Emeritus of Political Science & Public Policy 

Leland Glenna
Associate Professor of Rural Sociology 

Larry Gorenflo
Professor of Landscape Architecture 

R. Neill Johnson
Director, Penn State Learning 

David W. Jones
Environmental Engineering Lab Manager 

Julia Spicier Kasdorf
Professor of English and Women’s Studies 

Mark T. Kissling
Assistant Professor of Education  

Andrew Lau
Associate Proferssor of Engineering 

Li Li
Associate Professor of Energy and Mineral Engineering 

Michael E. Mann

Distinguished Professor
Director
Earth System Science Center (ESSC) 

Ian Marshall
Professor of English and Environmental Studies 

Raymond Najjar
Professor of Oceanography 

Sylvia Neely
Associate Professor Emerita of History 

Caitlin Osborne
Instructor of Dance and Theatre Arts 

Kyle Peck
Professor of Education 

David Post
Professor of Education

Madhu Prakash
Professor of Education 

Jamie Quail
Undergraduate Student of Psychology and Environmental Inquiry

Brandi J. Robinson
Lecturer
Energy and Mineral Engineering 

John Roe
Professor of Mathematics 

Steven Rubin
Associate Professor of Art 

Sajay Samuel
Clinical Professor of Accounting 

Elizabeth Smolcic
Assistant Professor of Education 

Susan Squier
Brill Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and English  

Dana L. Stuchul
Associate professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction 

Janet K. Swim
Professor of Psychology 

Chris Uhl
Professor of Biology 

Jennifer A. Wagner-Lawlor
Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and English 

Catherine Wanner
Professor of History and Religious Studies 

Denice H. Wardrop
Senior Scientist

Director, Penn State’s Sustainability Institute 

Ben Wideman

Campus Pastor for 3rd Way CollectiveT