CALPIRG: WHAT's THAT?
You may have wondered who were those CALPIRG people harrassing you on campus during pledge week and what they were fighting for.
Basically, your question is the following: WHAT is CALPIRG?
CALPIRG is a branch at the Californian level of a nationwide Public Interest Research Group that fights for issues on which American students care about. The creation of the PIRG goes back to the 1970s, when students realized that they did not have the appropriate tools to fight effectively for their rights. They create the PIRG and an innovative way of financing their Research Group in order to be able to hire professional staff (scientists, lawyers, ...) that would work on their behalf (designing appropriate and viable solutions to their problems, designing effective campaigns, teaching them how to convince people, lobbying at local and national level...).
CALPIRG is the specific branch of the PIRG based in California.
This year, it is conducting several campaigns: Protection of the Oceans, College Affordability, Environmental Justice, ... and of course the Global Warming Warming Solution Campaign. Paragraph.
Basically, your question is the following: WHAT is CALPIRG?
CALPIRG is a branch at the Californian level of a nationwide Public Interest Research Group that fights for issues on which American students care about. The creation of the PIRG goes back to the 1970s, when students realized that they did not have the appropriate tools to fight effectively for their rights. They create the PIRG and an innovative way of financing their Research Group in order to be able to hire professional staff (scientists, lawyers, ...) that would work on their behalf (designing appropriate and viable solutions to their problems, designing effective campaigns, teaching them how to convince people, lobbying at local and national level...).
CALPIRG is the specific branch of the PIRG based in California.
This year, it is conducting several campaigns: Protection of the Oceans, College Affordability, Environmental Justice, ... and of course the Global Warming Warming Solution Campaign. Paragraph.
The GLOBAL WARMING CAMPAIGN
CALPIRG has designed a unique campaign to fight Global Warming.
The necessity to fight global Warming:
- Global Warming threatens our way of life
Global Warming will have important impact on Americans' lifestyle at the local level:
decreased snow-pack in the Sierra will mean massive shortage in clean drinking water in California
A longer and more severe wildfire season
Coastal cities (San Francisco, Santa Monica ...) will be submerged because of sea levels rise.
- Conflict between scientists and politicians about long-term solutions
As students, citizens and inhabitants of California, we need to take action and pressure on the authorities so they take effective actions as soon as possible, all thethat scientists have already designed technologies that could help fighting global warming.
The possible technologies and solutions that have already been designed and that authorities could implement right now.
- solar panels are cheaper and better than ever before.
- we can transform a regular hybrid vehicul into a plug in electric hybridthat gets more than 100 mpg.
- we can build Green Buildings to save energy and use energy effectively.
What has been done so far on the initiative of Californian students
Green buildings on campus
- UCSC: students buy 100% of their energy from clean energy sources
Berkeley: Bauer Hall is one of the most energy efficient buildings in the World
USC: the entire fleet of the campus is composed of green cars
UC Chancellors are committed to making the US campuses carbon neutral. - Implementation of transformative legislation thanks to students' campaign
Students have worked to pass transformation legislation like the Million Solar Roofs initiative, which quadrupled the number of solar homes in the last 3 years
They also worked to pass the Global Warming Solutions Act that capps California's emissions.
http://www.dailycal.org/article/106343/calpirg_struggles_to_make_pledge_quotas
