| Junior Mark Moroge brings UI to the U.N. |
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| Written by Frank McGovern -Argonaut | ||||
| Friday, 10 February 2006 | ||||
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As students in Moscow are rushing through their classes today, eager to
begin the weekend, one is paying a visit to the United Nations. On Tuesday, Mark Moroge, a junior ecology major with the College of Natural Resources, flew to New York City to represent the United States Youth Network for Sustainability (SustainUS) at the United Nations Commission on Social Development. The meeting will last through Feb. 17. Moroge won the opportunity to attend the conference unexpectedly when the professor of a landscape ecology course he took last spring suggested Moroge submit a research paper for publication. “It’s been very fortuitous how I came to be involved with the organization,” said Moroge. “I wrote an essay and my professor, Lee Vierling, who’s been really great, said I should publish it. I was initially like, ‘Yeah, right,’ but then he sent me a link to (the SustainUS) Web site and suggested it was worth pursuing.” SustainUS is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to “young people advancing sustainable development and youth empowerment in the U.S.” On the strength of his essay, SustainUS selected Moroge as one of just nine national delegates. “I didn’t really have any expectations going into it,” said Moroge. “I didn’t really think about it. I didn’t want to think about it. You don’t want to get too excited in case it doesn’t work out. But yeah, I was a little surprised I was chosen.” Beyond the excitement of visiting New York City for the first time, Moroge, a transfer student from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is enthusiastic about the prospect of interacting with talented and like-minded peers. Sustainability and its peripheral environmental issues have not only been gaining increasing international scientific recognition, but escalating attention among American universities and students as well. The opportunities to appear on behalf of United States and the prospect of participating in discourse with an international student community dedicated to raising awareness of global environmental crises are the main incentives for Moroge. “Large-scale environmental concerns are talking points now, and before people just weren’t aware of them,” he said. “There are increasing demands on natural resources globally, just with increasing populations, climate change and global warming. If you don’t follow it really closely, you’ll end up like the United States, which is really a poor model to follow.” Though he said the United States doesn’t set a good example, Moroge proposed that ecological anxieties and solutions are particularly important for us. “We are the world’s leading producer of CO2 and we’re a nation of only 300 million people.” Despite, or possibly because of, these shortcomings, he insists America has an opportunity to make a difference. “If we would take a strong stance on that and really focus more on renewable resources it would set a great example for other countries, like China for example, to follow.”  Add as favorites (85) | Views: 1838
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