I’m all for respecting the environment. Green is good. I love the efforts Wash. U. puts into sustainability. But a change that I’ve recently become aware of is simply ridiculous. Whispers Café is now a place where you can die of dehydration. I was walking to class one afternoon, and decided to stop in quickly for some water. It was hot out.

Picasso is well known for his Blue Period, but can contemporary art sustain a Green Period? On Wednesday at 4 p.m., speakers from Washington University and the local community will meet to discuss the relationship between the arts and the environment. Those who attend will participate and guide the discussion.

The residential college JKL and fraternity Sigma Chi won a trophy, but not for any athletic feat. They were the winners of the first Green Cup competition. Washington University tried to cut down on energy consumption by pitting all of the South 40 Residential Colleges against each other, and all of the fraternity houses against each other.

Students gather in College Hall to kick off the Green Cup. The competition pits residential colleges, fraternity houses and the North Side against each other in various sustainability-promoting contests.

Two activities will be offered to the few students aware that today is Campus Sustainability Day. The rest of the student body will not even know it is going on.

Over the past few years, the University has taken steps to improve its reputation as an environmentally friendly school. LEED certified buildings dot the campus.

The Washington University Climate Justice Alliance (WUCJA) received the Joseph Barbosa Award last week, a national award from the Sierra Club that recognizes outstanding environmental efforts of contributors under the age of thirty.

The trend of the year has been the push for sustainability. In a culmination of that effort, outgoing Student Body President Jeff Nelson, along with Will Fischer, the Student Union executive adviser for sustainable events, proposed the new Protocol for Green Events. Next Tuesday, SU Treasury will vote to decide whether or not to put the Protocol for Green Events into action. It is expected to pass.

The enviro-fascists among us have cause for alarm. In recent media, story after story has been released about how global warming alarmists have exaggerated their claims, manipulated data, conspired to hide their methods from critical scientists and personally profited from their radical claims.