Divide between academs and ESCIs apparent

By Dana Hoffman     2/10/11 6:00pm

Within the first month of my time at Rice, I became familiar with the reputed, and often very real, divide between students majoring in science and engineering and those in the social science, humanities and arts. In my day (two years ago), they were called ESCIs and academs. I, a political science and environmental policy major, was planted firmly on the side of academs and passionately sparred many a time with my science-oriented friends. But always in my mind was the assumption that this poor communication and lack of understanding about the content and culture of the two sides was a product of the college existence. I figured that life beyond the hedges had a convenient bridge over the divide. As it turns out, folks, I was totally and completely wrong. After spending two years on the outside, I've discovered the same lack of communication and coordination exists between these realms in the working world. It also turns out that if you find a job that helps bridge the divide, you'll be on a path to making change.

In my senior year, I was accepted to the two-year fellowship program at Environment America, a federation of 29 state-based environmental advocacy groups.

No field exemplifies the divide between science and academic experts better than that of environmental policy. These issues are fundamentally science-bound - energy production requires extensive engineering capacity, and ecosystems and the climate are biologically and geologically complex. The issues are also profoundly social: Communities must decide who benefits and who pays a price; individual decision on a mass scale decides environmental impacts. Yet there is a huge disconnect between scientists, social decision-makers and the general public.

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That's why careers like mine exist and why, with less money than the opposition, we are able to make change. Environment America's nonprofit groups work to plan, run and win environmental campaigns. Along the way, we interpret scientific data for policy makers, put legislation in terms of impact on society and get people involved on the grassroots level with the issues.

As a fellow at Environment America, I've worked on issues like creating a statewide standard for 30 percent of electricity to come from renewable energy sources, while still keeping the lights on for a growing population; or building a "smart grid," an electricity grid that uses digital technology to much more efficiently respond to demand at any given time, thus saving a lot of wasted energy. Smart grids are a technology that could be a huge part of the solution to energy independence and shortages, air pollution and climate change. But the disconnect between technology developers, utilities management, consumers and the government has made getting this revolution on the ground difficult.

My current campaign is about taking advantage of solutions for energy efficiency - the cheapest, fastest and most reliable energy source we have in our buildings. Scintillating things like better insulation, wiring and plumbing codes could save Coloradoans more than $250 and reduce global warming emissions by nearly a million metric tons every year. It takes the engineers and plumbers, homeowners and code-makers communicating effectively and proactively to make it happen.

That's my job: I write opinion columns and letters to the editor, write reports designed for public consumption, hold press conferences, build coalitions of like-minded organizations, hold town hall meetings, lobby building code officials and coordinate discussions between the key players. Sometimes, my job is like herding cats. It also turns out to be highly effective. Last year, a campaign involving the coordination between environmentalists, natural gas companies and city governments to clean up our air resulted in passing a law that will flip the switch on five of the oldest, dirtiest coal units and reduce the major pollutants in the state by more than 80 percent.

Fellows in their first year have helped do things like ban plastic bags in Seattle, ensure the building of high-speed trains and get a million solar roofs installed in California.

There many ways to be very effective very early in your career, but being a bridge over the little understood ravine between ESCIs and academs is one good way. Rice students intimately understand the divide - and you can use that to your advantage!

Environment America is currently accepting applications for the 2011-2013 Fellowship. You can find out more and apply online at www.environmentamerica.org/jobs.

Dana Hoffman is a Will Rice College alumnus.

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