Polling students’ environmental concerns

Utah State University is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2040. This begs the question: Do students care about USU’s carbon emissions, and do they care about the environment in general?

The Utah Statesman put out an online poll surveying the environmental concerns of students at USU.

Environmental concerns included in the poll are as follows: wildfires, climate change, increased temperatures, population growth, drought, the drying up of the Great Salt Lake, poor air quality and changing access to public lands.

The poll also asked students on how they interact with the outdoors, where 61% of students answered that access to outdoor recreation and/or wilderness and public lands is either very or extremely important to their lifestyle.

“I try to be outside as much as I can,” said USU student Caitlyn Balstin.

With the intention to understand what USU students think about their surrounding environment in Logan, as well as the state of Utah in general, the online poll received 78 responses, with a general consensus leaning towards concern for the environment.

The resulting top three concerns students have the most interest in are drought, the drying up of the Great Salt Lake and poor air quality. The concern with the least amount of interest was climate change.

“I’m from Minnesota, so moving here, like the air quality’s been the thing I think about, I never really had to think about that until I got here,” said USU student Caleb Bradbury.

USUSA College of Natural Resources Senator Nate Omer, a senior studying management and restoration of aquatic ecosystems, had a different perspective than the majority of students who answered the poll.

“I think number one for me is habitat loss and degradation,” Omer said. “I see it as really connected to lots of other climate change and environmental issues. Habitat loss is responsible for loss of, you know, carbon sequestration, responsible for loss of biodiversity.”

Habitat loss was not a concern listed in the poll.

Omer said if students are worried about water, they should look to agriculture. According to USU research, 79.2% of Utah’s water supply goes to agriculture.

“Growing food is a good use of water, but we could definitely be better about it,” Omer said. “Food just is responsible for a lot of, you know, emissions productions, responsible for a lot of habitat loss, you know, clearing fields for a new wheat field or new soy field.”

Much of this water comes from the snow runoff in the mountains, where Utah can see 50 inches of water in one area of the state to only 10 inches in the others.

“I love winter, and I love snow, so I think about protecting our winters,” said USU student Hudson Iber.

Students can actively take steps to help the environment by tracking their consumption, as omer said. If students want to make a difference on campus they can reach out to the Christensen Office of Social Action and Sustainability.

“I would love to see more students more concerned and in touch with the effects that their consumption has on the environment,” Omer said.