College Shorts - 04/29/10

Gates urges Harvard students to give back

Renowned Harvard dropout, Bill Gates returned to the university on Wednesday to encourage students to seek philanthropic jobs. In his address to a packed audience, Gates stressed the importance of youth’s involvement in social issues such as alleviating poverty and improving the standards of education and global health. He believes that by increasing research, the problems of education and health can be solved.

Gates believes that a lot of bright talent is engaged in work “that is focused on the specific needs of the rich.” He did not dissuade students from pursuing careers that offer high remuneration but instead, he focused on the current generation’s ability to positively impact and solve current world problems, the need of the hour.

Gates will be touring four more college campuses in California, Chicago and Boston. He said that he felt inspired to urge students to direct their energy to more noble causes.

— The Harvard Crimson

Environmental activist addresses Northwestern

Environmental activist Jean-Michel Cousteau addressed Northwestern University students and Evanston community members on Thursday night about the importance of ocean conservation. The event was organized by the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern on Earth Day as part of the University’s One Book One Northwestern Project.

Cousteau emphasized the importance of the oceans. He said that in spite of increased awareness of the environment and technological developments, humans are still harming the oceans. Increased levels of carbon dioxide emissions and changes in the climate have caused the oceans to acidify. Apart from that, problems such as over-fishing, coastal habitat destruction and chemical dumping are impacting the ecosystem and humans.

Cousteau proposed that sustainable herbivore-fish-and-plant farming, protecting coastal areas such as the mangroves, and regulating the chemicals released into the ocean can solve each of these problems.

— The Daily Northwestern

Costa Rican president visits Duke for eco-talk

Former Costa Rican president, José María Figueres, supported environmental sustainability over economic growth, in a speech on ‘Democracy and Environmental Sustainability’ at Duke University on Thursday. The university’s Latino Student Association, Mi Gente, organized the talk as part of its first United College Conference.

Figueres said that the current recession illustrated that government policy, and not the economic markets, would play a key role in shaping Latin America’s development as an eco-friendly economy.

He believes that Latin America has great development opportunities if it discontinues its policies of “banking on the growth of other countries” and making profits from exporting to carbon-dependent countries. Instead, Latin America should directly jump to using sustainable technology in light of global environmental problems and limited resources.

Figueres asserted that Latin America could be “constructive and leapfrog directly into the global economy.”

— The Chronicle of Higher Education