This was first published in the College Voice on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Focus the Nation is this Thursday! In case you haven’t heard yet, it’s a national day of discussion about climate change solutions happening at approximately 1500 colleges and universities around the country. It’s really going to be a wonderful event, and all the events are free. Here’s what the schedule looks like:
Wednesday at 7:45 we’re screening the live webcast “The 2% Solution” in Bill 106. It’s called that because in order to achieve the “80% by 2050” targets for reducing carbon emissions, we need to make approximately 2% reductions each year. Anyways, the webcast’s going to be AMAZING, with a bunch of really cool climate experts (including Van Jones, who’s amazing), and then Edward Norton. There will even be text-message voting. That’s about all I know. It’s going to be really cool.
The main bulk of our events are during the day on Thursday. In each of the five standard class blocks from 9am-4pm there will be a panel discussion with faculty and some outside speakers. The topics and panelists are on the Focus the Nation facebook event, but essentially (and in order) they are: Sustainable Cities, Sustainable Food, Climate Effects on Nature, Green Building, and China & India. There are great panelists, and dedicated student moderators, as well. Come, learn some really interesting stuff, and support your classmates!
The final segment of the event is a talk co-sponsored by the Education department and the Goodwin-Niering Center, and it’s happening at 7pm Thursday night. The speaker is Dr. Greg Cajete, Director of the Native American Studies program at the University of New Mexico. He’ll be speaking on ecological education from an indigenous perspective. This event is somewhere in Blaustein, probably Ernst Common Room.
And this is just what we’ve got pinned down so far. There are a number of other initiatives that are part of the national event which we haven’t worked on for here, involving a project called Choose Your Future, where you can vote which solutions you think are best for solving the climate crisis. The results of that will be used to attempt an influence on the political discussion of environmental issues.
Finally, remember to vote in your state’s primary if you still can (that is, if you’re registered and all), or to send in your absentee ballot, whatever you’re doing. This is a crucial presidential election, and the primary’s a very big deal, in which the course of both parties’ future will be influenced one way or another. Get active! Make your voice heard! Shuffle off the apathetic coil! Our generation is really awesome, and by dropping our apathy and influencing this election we can really gain a lot of respect from our parents’ generation.
More information about Focus the Nation can be found at http://www.focusthenation.org, and this and all other environmental news from Conn is online at http://conncollgreen.wordpress.com.
