With gigantic fires, floods, droughts and a general increase in the global temperature, there can be little doubt that global warming’s effects are upon us. 2020 marks the year in which we, according to the conservative estimates of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, have just 10 years left to reach the goal established by almost all of the world’s countries of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100. In this context, some point out that, while individual efforts toward combating climate change like committing to a vegan diet, reducing air travel and consuming more sustainably are honorable and important, the crisis cannot be solved without governments, companies and larger institutions stepping up. With several thousand people — students, staff, visitors, etc. — using the NYUAD campus on a daily basis, our institution’s actions matter; we have a responsibility.

UAE’s Masdar initiative exemplifies how we can combat global warming by taking on such responsibility. In this article, I suggest some of the many ways that the university can live up to its responsibility to tackle global warming with minimal costs and possibly even positive side effects.

Caps on printing for students have been suggested numerous times and fiercely debated on campus — almost to the point where it feels like the discussion is preventing us from discussing other environmental issues. But the printing cap proposal fails to address the fact that books for courses most likely consume much more paper than any printing happening on campus.

One way to tackle both paper usage from books and from printing is to invest in eBook readers for all students. The devices are built with electronic ink technology, ensuring that the reader has a similar experience as when reading from real paper, rather than what many feel is the uncomfortable experience of reading from regular tablets or laptop screens. They are also quite cheap, and a quick estimate shows that just the price of the paper used for printing would likely make up for the price of buying annual eBook readers for all students — not to mention the savings on replacing physical books with eBooks.

Finally, imagine the headlines: “NYU Abu Dhabi gives eBook readers to all students in bid to challenge paper waste.” Beautiful PR, is it not?

If select students for some reason still require physical books, I am certain that accommodation could be made through the Moses Center.

An essential part of being an NYUAD student is air travel — be it to or from Abu Dhabi — and for most students, this air travel is covered by the university’s financial aid. This cannot be changed. The question is: how can we tackle these carbon emissions?

Offsetting carbon emissions means to give money to different projects that for instance plant trees or reduce methane from waste dumps, the concept being that if you give the right amount of money, the carbon emissions from your flight will be compensated for.

While there is no consensus on the exact effects of different methods of offsetting carbon emissions, it certainly presents a degree of compensation — whether it corresponds exactly to one’s consumption is the question. And there are several companies that certify offset projects to ensure that donated money actually is spent as intended. Like eBook readers, including the price of offsetting in the financial aid given to NYUAD students presents massive PR opportunities for the university.

NYUAD’s core curriculum already operates with an Islamic Studies requirement, a Quantitative Reasoning requirement, and an Experimental Inquiry requirement. Similarly, I suggest adding a Global Warming requirement.

In the same way, as Physical Education requirements ensure the demand necessary to offer exciting classes like Golf and Water Sports, a Global Warming requirement would stimulate the course options available to students who are interested in global warming. It would also encourage all majors to develop global warming-related courses while ensuring student enrollment. As a bonus, NYUAD could become a global leader in developing global warming-related scholarship in academic fields like psychology or Middle Eastern Studies where such scholarship is still in its early stages.

Some students inevitably join NYUAD without yet having found their academic passion. With a more exciting selection of global warming-related classes, they may well end up global environmentalist leaders. And for those who take no interest at all, it is simple to find a core class that could fulfill such a requirement while also belonging to one of the four categories of core classes required anyway.

Currently, a call for bids is underway with regards to the contractor that will manage dining at NYUAD. I suggest that sustainability — specifically waste minimization and management — should be central to the criteria for choosing the service provider.

While sustainability issues have been raised at listening sessions, it is imperative that it is being brought to the core of the selection process. This is an important step in the direction of rethinking which priorities we look for in a contractor other than getting the lowest price.

In addition, one might note that minimizing waste also minimizes unnecessary consumption and thereby unnecessary spending. Thus, it should be in every party’s interest — including the planet’s.

As a fourth-year student in the humanities, I have spent countless hours in the capstone zone of A6, often returning to my dorm in the early morning hours. A6 is deserted at night. Why are the lights on in almost every office in the whole building?

Similarly, how many times have we as NYUAD students sat in a classroom way too cold for the human condition due to the confused and centralized control of the air conditioning?

I fail to see how anyone could be opposed to turning the lights off when no one is in the room or controlling the air condition according to the wishes of whoever is — perhaps even relying on an open door in the colder months. So why not change it?

As a university, we would be decreasing both our energy and monetary consumption, and no one would be any worse off.

Firstly, as per the point of managing power consumption, one thing we should be doing is to remember our common ground. Some of my suggestions are basically common sense and should be easy to implement without the polarizing discussions we have had around printing caps and plastic bottles. While we should be both implementing the common sense proposals and discussing the difficult ones, it seems to me that the former often have not been prioritized enough.

Secondly, we need to start seeing global warming as an opportunity on top of a crisis. Sure, we need to make difficult decisions and sacrifice, but if we can do so and profit simultaneously, why should we not?

Lastly, now is a window of opportunity for universities to be first. Be the first at giving students eBook readers, the first at having net-zero emissions or the first at having global warming be an integral part of every student’s curriculum. Being first is a big statement — and we have the chance to make that statement.