Peter Boyd enlightens Staples students

Peter Boyd enlightens Staples students

Staples students filled the seats of the Westport Arts Center on Friday, Oct. 17 to hear Peter Boyd, COO of the organization the Carbon War Room, speak about the contributors and solutions to climate change.

The presentation went through the Carbon War Room’s approaches to climate change, primarily focusing on how policy change in businesses can help the planet.

The Carbon War Room’s mission statement on their website is to accelerate “the adoption of business solutions that reduce carbon emissions at gigaton scale and advance the low-carbon economy.”

Boyd reflected this statement throughout his presentation, incorporating facts about how businesses could shift in a way that helps both them and the environment. He pointed out that solar energy has gone down 80% in price since 2008, yet fossil fuels are only going up in price.

He noted some businesses have already begun this environmentally friendly shift.

“We’re generally better,” Boyd said, “but not fast enough.”

These facts were especially pertinent to the Staples students who attended since many of them are in the AP Environmental class.

Sonia Klein ’16, who is currently taking AP Environmental, said, “It is really cool to see someone taking the facts we’re learning in class and using it to help change the world.”

Several students agreed with this sentiment.

James Banbury ’16 said, “These are real world issues that matter.”

The last slide of Boyd’s presentation, which also happens to be a key slogan for Carbon War Room, stated an ominous reminder.

It read, “There is no planet B.”