There’s something sexy about climate change.

The theories have been around for decades but it has only been in the last few years that the popularity has really caught on. The recent freak weather around the world has inspired trepidations of millions. If the meltdown continues, the world as we know it will eventually (we are not sure when) erupt in wild state of pandemonium.

Obviously, this topic is irresistible, so we at the Sun Star had to jump on the bandwagon and do our own “climate change” themed issue. Though the issue has been hyped, I don’t want to undermine the importance of what is going on.

Climate change is a big deal everywhere, but it has a special place in the heart of UAF. According to statistics in the UA regent’s budget request put together by UA planning and budgeting, UAF is one of the top five climate change universities in the nation. Such research is also one of the top priorities in the Regent’s budget proposal.

This university is one of the best forums to explore what has happened, speculate what will happen and consider what if anything we can do about it. There are many organizations on campus dealing with these issues right now, so we tried to look at a few things that are going on campus. I know there are a lot more out there, but our objective was to just look at a few and see what they are doing.

We’ve looked at the statistics. We see what has happened. This begs the question: what does the future hold? My outlook is positive. I think back to what I’ve read and heard America was like during the industrial revolution. People of the time probably had a dismal outlook as well when their skies were black with coal smoke. The state of our environment has improved substantially since that time.

The hype of the environmental movement is a good thing in that people are beginning to understand their own role in what is going on the world. As I have said before, it is easy for people to point fingers of whose responsibility it is, but those who make a difference take it upon themselves to make changes in their own habits.

I trust that with growing enthusiasm of the general populace combined with the brilliant minds being honed at UAF will help come up with solutions to the problems we are facing today.