Purdue University Northwest is at the forefront of a battle to curb climate change and stave off environmental disasters. 

“The work that we do here at Purdue Northwest is mostly associated with working with our industry partners looking to the future to see how we can engineer or change our processes to reduce the amount of chemicals that are going out into the climate and the atmosphere,” said Bruce Berdanier, dean of the College of Engineering and Sciences. “There are going to be definite environmental impacts and they’re happening already.” 

Carbon dioxide is considered the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. As its increasing concentration in the atmosphere traps heat from the sun, it increases global temperatures. Researchers estimate the world emits 37.55 billion metric tons of carbon each year.

“The problem with climate change is it’s going to accelerate over the next couple of years, it’s going to get progressively worse, progressively faster,” said Reynaldo Barreto, associate professor of Chemistry. “We have to stop using fuel out of the ground in our cars. We have to develop new ways of powering our vehicles and powering our lives.”

Freshman Meena Eldridge believes students can help. 

“Students can help PNW and the environment by throwing away their trash and correctly putting what needs to be thrown away in the recycling bin,” she said. “There’re chemicals in our water and air. We need to change that.”