The Daily Campus

Issue date: 12/1/08 Section: Commentary

Though fuel prices may have retreated from their mid-summer peaks, energy prices are still no bargain. Considering that energy use is one of the most expensive costs factored into UConn tuition, room and board, students should be taking a more proactive approach to curbing wasteful energy use. In turn, this will reduce student fee bills and help the environment.

Despite the fact that students do not directly pay for their personal energy usage, we all pay for each other's energy bills. Such energy waste drives up the cost for all of us. UConn bases our fees on collective energy usage estimates, and when some people wastefully use energy, they drive up the cost for all of us. Many students leave lights, TVs and computers on when they are not in use, which unnecessarily wastes electricity. Other students wash half-full loads of dishes and laundry, another unnecessary use of energy. These wasteful habits, when multiplied by thousands of occurrences each day on campus, add up to thousands of dollars in wasted energy each semester.

Perhaps even more importantly, such wasteful behaviors are wreaking havoc on the environment. We have all heard about how the industrialized world has polluted the environment at devastating levels. We cannot correct hundreds of years of abuse easily, and it is our generation that will bear the burden if we do not immediately take corrective measures. We may not be able to alter how much pollution is released into the atmosphere by large factories, but we can each do our part to curb wasteful energy use in our own way.

Leaving lights, computers and TVs on when they aren't being used are all wasteful allocations of energy. So is washing a pair of jeans by itself in the washing machine. Practically speaking, almost every person has been guilty of one or more of these things.

If each of us does one thing to reduce the wasteful energy usage in our daily lives, we will collectively save energy instead of collectively wasting energy, in turn saving the environment and putting some extra cash back in our pockets. Most every developed country on Earth takes energy conservation far more seriously than we do here in the United States. As a world leader, it is time for the U.S. to lead by example in the global effort to reduce energy use. UConn students must step up to the plate and do their part, one light switch at a time.

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