Environmental community, listen up: I’m concerned about sustainability at UConn.

My grandfather’s eyes begin to soften as the sun begins to set. It’s Friday night. He’s dressed in white shirt that has taken on a faint yellow hue, black cotton pants, and the curved bottom shoes he claims help maintain his balance. We begin walking to the synagogue at the end of the street, as “Shalom Aleichem” — a traditional Jewish hymn sung on Friday nights — echoes from the synagogue loudspeakers. I wonder how many times my Saba has walked this same route — first on a dirt road, then gravel and now, on a paved sidewalk — and with whom he has walked it with — first his grandfather and father, then his children and now, my brother and me. My Saba was raised on a small chicken farm in the farming community of Kadima, Israel, nestled halfway between the Mediterranean Sea and what is now the Green Line. He tells me of a time before the war when there was peace with the neighboring Arab villages before he had to stand watch at the water tower. He was only ten years old when war broke out in 1948. At one point the Iraqi army came within five kilometers of his village. He finishes his story as we take our seats inside the synagogue sanctuary.

I am Darren Mack and I am a Senator in USG. I had told myself initially that I wouldn’t entertain USG’s “Free Speech Movement.”

Per the USG Constitution, “The Comptroller shall oversee all financial matters of the organization and shall ensure that all expenditures of the Undergraduate Student Government are in accordance with Undergraduate Student Government policy and any applicable laws and regulations.”

We’re in a pandemic, and while that on its own is concerning and mentally exhausting for anyone, I’m not sure how more people don’t realize that this will not be over even after we get past this pandemic. Why? Because climate change will cause more pandemics and the heightened transmissibility of diseases, along with increasing temperatures and sea levels and a host of other problems. That’s the bad news. The good news? We can take action to address the climate crisis.