Thousands of plastic water bottles - approximately 600 pounds worth - sat in Alumni Mall Thursday giving observers a sip of reality: These bottles represent less than a week's worth of LMU's bottled water consumption. And this doesn't even account for bottles thrown into regular trash bins.
The event was hosted by ECO students, the campus environmental club, as part of a national teach-in day on the environment.
Organized by Focus the Nation, a non-partisan and nonprofit organization, students across America took part in this day of recognition and discussion on global warming in America. For LMU students, this meant a focus on peak oil, bottled water and re-localizing - which encourages people to drink, eat and buy from local, municipal sources.
"The amount of oil the bottled water industry requires in a year just to manufacture the bottles themselves would be enough oil to power one million cars per year," ECO organizer Colum Riley said. And this statistic does not include shipping the bottles. This is why, in exchange for a signed commitment to never drink bottled water again, Riley and other ECO students handed out blue aluminum reusable bottles to replace plastics one.
The day did not end there, however, as students continued their dialogue Thursday evening in Ahmanson Auditorium, joined by a panel of LMU professors advocating change. Professors Dr. Michael Mills of psychology, Dr. John Dorsey of natural science and Dr. Brian Treanor of philosophy all weighed in, combining their specific areas of study to provide valuable insight into the environmental crisis.
"We're in global climate change now," Dorsey said while listing projected weather trends and their consequences. "The time for talk has finished and it's time to start taking action - you guys do that in the voting booths."
Mills, calling himself an "oilcoholic," provided sobering statistics on oil over-consumption, showing that the world has peaked in oil production - a concept coined "peak oil." He also clarified for the audience exactly how many items are made by oil, including plastics, medicine, tires, roads, chairs and laptops, adding, "We're going to consume it all, boom! Just in the blink of an eye."
Contributing a discussion of philosophy, Treanor offered hope to the situation by pointing out that "a lot of the things we need to do to forestall or to avoid ecological collapse … are the things you should want to do anyway to live a good life," urging students to look at environmental issues "from the perspective of 'I can make a virtue out of this necessity.'"
After sitting in on the discussion, 2007 alumnus Jai Dahyabhai was excited. "It got me motivated to get out there and get involved in these clubs and activities that can make a difference in the environment. I'm definitely going to try and inform my friends and family, and to set an example," said Dahyabhai.
Organizers of the event were also very pleased, calling the day a tremendous success. Riley said, "I think the [water bottle] display really got into people's faces so to speak. It challenged them by giving a visual representation and I guarantee the first time you fill up your water bottle, you feel good about it. It's baby steps."
