UT inventories greenhouse emissions
March 18, 2009

Universities across the U.S. have been stepping up sustainability initiatives lately – typically including explicit efforts to reduce their carbon emissions – and higher education institutions in Texas are part of that trend.

Last week, the University of Texas at Austin held a number of public sessions to brief the UT community on a contractor’s findings in the first inventory of greenhouse gas emissions under the university’s “direct control.”

The inventory, which found a six percent reduction in greenhouse emissions from 2004 to 2006, will serve as a benchmark for future inventories and is a necessary first step toward an action plan for further emission cuts, Dr. Steven Kraal, UT’s senior associate vice president for campus planning and facilities management, said in a news release.

“While the university has taken major steps to shrink our carbon footprint by producing energy more efficiently and reducing energy demand, this inventory spotlights areas where we can have the greatest impact on reducing emissions in the future,” Kraal said.

The Daily Texan, UT’s student newspaper, included these details in its article on the inventory:

Joshua Skov, the principal researcher at Good Company who worked on the inventory, cautioned against definitively comparing UT to other universities. More►

For more than two decades now, scientific warnings have been accumulating about the risks posed to the Texas coast by rising sea levels that scientists say are being propelled by manmade climate change.

Another such alert was sounded in a lengthy federal study released this month by the Environmental Protection Agency, U. S. Geological Survey and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. One of numerous research projects commissioned by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, the report focused on sea-level hazards confronting the mid-Atlantic region as a case study. It also included considerable general discussion relevant to other coastal areas.

Regarding Texas, the report said: “The mid-Atlantic region is highly vulnerable to sea-level rise, but regions like the central Gulf Coast (Louisiana, Texas) are just as vulnerable or more so.”
   
Another passage, while not geographically specific, may strike a chord with Texans mindful of the state’s direct and indirect experiences with  hurricanes Ike, Rita and Katrina:

Rising sea level increases the vulnerability of development on coastal floodplains. Higher sea level provides an elevated base for storm surges to build upon and diminishes the rate at which low-lying areas drain, thereby increasing the risk of flooding from rainstorms. Increases in shore erosion also contribute to greater flood damages by removing protective dunes, beaches, and wetlands and by leaving some properties closer to the water's edge.

Another passage is typical of the study’s general conclusions pertinent to Texas, given the state’s history:

At the current rate of sea-level rise, coastal residents and businesses have been responding by rebuilding at the same location, relocating, holding back the sea by coastal engineering, or some combination of these approaches. With a substantial acceleration of sea-level rise, traditional coastal engineering may not be economically or environmentally sustainable in some areas. More►