Mr.,"”It's time we accept responsibility…to improve the state of the environment" was the battle cry issued in the final line of Eric Lombardi's Nov. 20 column, "Global cooking." I wholeheartedly agree with him, but his plan lacks vital considerations.

Lombardi claims his environmental-saving plan is simple. Solar panels, an example he offers, are not as easy a fix as he would have us think. For all the superlatives we can offer Milwaukee, "Most Sunshine" is not one of them. In the same way that residents of this city are plagued with lackluster energy when winter presents more clouds and snow than sun, solar panels would suffer the same fate. Harnessing the natural resources of our area is a great idea; sun is just not one of them.

Marquette is doing much more to shrink its footprint than the column gave it credit for. If you are curious about the steps already underway, visit the "Sustainability at Marquette" section of the Office of Administration Web site. Some of them include: heating all of campus with excess steam from the power plant across the valley from us, replacing 40-watt fluorescent bulbs with 34-watt bulbs and offering multi-car parking permits for students and faculty that carpool to campus. These measures are a great start, but they can only be as successful as the effort we apply to them. This is where we, the students, pick up the slack.

Recycling paper we print off for classes, turning off unnecessary electronics, using less plastic flatware and, dare I say it, drinking less bottled water will all contribute to the goal of a small environmental footprint. By all means, stay hydrated.

However, we cannot complain about Mother Earth being exploited while we sip water from a plastic bottle that will be thrown away when fresh tap water in Milwaukee is readily available (in more than 15 locations in the library alone).

These are the small steps that need to be taken in addition to new administrative measures. Without our attempts, the university will be working in vain.

“