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Students enrolled in the 2009 Cornell Earth and Environmental Systems (EES) Field Program experienced firsthand how to minimize their carbon footprint during their five months on the island. 

The students used solar water heating and monitored their electric and propane usage. They participated in a food cooperative and shopped at the farmers’ market to purchase locally grown fruits and vegetables, and they purchased grass-fed island beef as often as possible.

Bridget Hass helped to survey the vegetation at eight sites near Waikoloa Village as part of her internship with the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization. (Photo courtesy of The Kohala Center)

They volunteered time working in school gardens and they planted more than 300 trees, shrubs, and other native plants in the forests of Kohala and Kona. 

Each student interned with island-based organizations, and in their course of their six-week internships the students developed new display boards for the ReefTeach program and gathered valuable baseline data for use by local organizations that are working to preserve Hawaii’s watersheds, coral reefs, and dryland forests. 

At final count, the students sequestered four times as much carbon as they emitted in the course of their stay on the island. 

These results are even more impressive when you consider visitors to Hawaii Island typically utilize two to three times more water, electricity, and gas than island residents.

“I had not been thinking of our small project in terms of what impact it might have beyond us or after we leave Hawaii, but I am glad that instead of a bunch of big scientists trying to solve the question of carbon neutrality, it is our small group of people living in a house together and using tools that anybody could use—internet, books, car odometer, gas meter, and some paper and pencil—trying to tackle the issue,” said Grace Ha, a Cornell University biology and society student, Class of 2010. 

“Actually planting the trees has made real for me what a Web site could not,” Ha said, “and it has also made me realize how much work needs to be done for our society to truly do something about greenhouse gases and global warming.”

The Cornell students showed it is possible to make their field program carbon neutral, and now they are busy sharing their knowledge with others. 

Nine of the students submitted a paper to the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, this month in Portland, Ore. 

The title is “What Does It Take to Be Carbon-Neutral?” The students will attend the meeting and give a presentation describing their carbon-neutral semester. 

Link to their abstract at http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009AM/finalprogram/abstract_161935.htm.

The Cornell EES program is currently accepting applicants for its 2010 program, which runs from Jan. 23 through May 16. 

Applications and more information are available at the EES Web site, www.geo.cornell.edu/hawaii.