Ex-professor lambasts green energy initiatives

An overwhelming 85 percent of UNC students voted this year to continue campus green energy projects on campus.

But Howard Hayden, a former professor of physics at the University of Connecticut, said Tuesday evening that solar energy and other green energy projects are not productive enough to garner such support.

“Just don’t get the idea that you’re decreasing overall worldwide (energy) consumption,” Hayden told a small crowd of students in Bingham Hall.

“Most of UNC’s savings will come from better insulation and better windows,” he said, instead of from solar panels.

Hayden critiqued the environmental movement’s green energy initiatives during his presentation, which was sponsored by the UNC Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow.

The group looked to answer the question, “So what were the other 15 percent of students thinking?”

He claimed that proponents don’t explain that solar power and conservation efforts produce little to no useful energy.

“Conservation is not a source of energy more than dieting is a source of nutrition,” he said.

Hayden said environmentalists do not explain this when advocating for solar energy efforts.

“Statistics are like bikinis: What they reveal is enticing, what they conceal is vital,” he said.

But Sara Peach, a member of Student Environmental Action Coalition and an organizer for UNC’s Green Energy Program, said Hayden threw environmentalists into a one-dimensional group and mocked renewable energy initiatives.

“He’s setting up a lot of strong-man comments,” Peach said. “He’s not accurately representing what the environmental movement is doing.”

Peach said that the Green Energy Project at UNC will not provide enough renewable energy sources to rely on them fully, but that its aim is to raise awareness of energy source alternatives.

CFACT’s national headquarters has received funding from corporations that have been widely critiqued for contributing to pollution problems, Peach added.

ExxonMobil Corp., a company that profits from the sale of crude oil and natural gas, donated $72,000 to CFACT in 2003.

CFACT chapters around the country have participated in protecting sports utility vehicles from being vandalized on Earth Day and protesting in favor of ExxonMobil, Peach also noted.

Kris Wampler, who spearheaded efforts to bring Hayden to campus, said the speech was a success.

“I think that what we saw here was good, hard science,” Wampler said. “If people are attune to both sides, then they definitely will learn from it.”

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.