MEADVILLE, Pa. – Jan. 9, 2008 – Allegheny College will join 1,100 colleges and universities nationwide — 52 in Pennsylvania — in Focus The Nation, an unprecedented national teach-in on global warming solutions. Allegheny faculty and students have planned activities for three days: Jan. 30 and 31 and Feb. 1.
“This is a great opportunity for students and community members from all disciplines and levels of understanding to become involved in the national dialogue on climate change,” said Thomas Eatmon, Visiting Scholar in the college's Department of Environmental Science. “The path to U.S. cooperation with the international community begins at the state and local level. There are not many times in life that we all have an opportunity to make such an impact on the future of the world.”
Focus The Nation has created a teach-in model centered on three pillars that are considered essential to help today's youth embrace solutions to global warming: education, civic engagement and leadership.
Richard J. Cook, president of Allegheny College, notes that the teach-in comes at a critical juncture. “If current educational and political leaders fail to address the causes of global climate instability seriously and promptly, history will rightly judge us as the most selfish and short-sighted generation in history,” he said. “We have the knowledge and means to limit the damaging effects of global climate change, and now we need to muster the wisdom, courage and will to preserve an earth worth inhabiting by coming generations. We will not be forgiven for standing by as if we are helpless.”
The teach-in will kick off at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 30 in Room 212 of Carnegie Hall with a webcast, “2% Solution,” produced by the National Wildlife Federation and aired by the Earth Day Network. Panelists will include Steve Schneider, a climate scientist at Stanford University; Hunter Lovins, CEO of Natural Capitalism and also a leader in environmental justice; and Van Jones, executive director of the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, Calif.
Activities on Thursday, Jan. 31, will include a keynote address by President Cook as well as a range of global warming curricula presented by Allegheny College faculty representing 10 departments. Poster presentations and interactive displays — as well as samples of food from local vendors and farmers — will be featured in the Campus Center. The college's dining hall will serve a local foods lunch.
Entertainment will include two performances by local band Gypsy Dave and the Stumpjumpers: one at 5 p.m. and one at 9:30 p.m. in Schultz Banquet Hall.
In addition, the carbon impact of the day's events will be calculated, and the community will be invited to determine whether to purchase carbon offsets or apply the cost of those offsets to a local cause.
At 7:30 p.m. in Ford Chapel, Brian Hill, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC), and Nancy Cole from the Union of Concerned Scientists will present information on Pennsylvania's Roadmap for Climate Change.
Hill will meet with local leaders on Friday, Feb. 1 to continue a dialogue on fostering college-community collaborations to enhance environmental responsibility on campus and in the local and regional communities. Community members who are interested in attending this session, part of the college's participation in a national program called Core Commitments, can get further details by calling the Center for Economic and Environmental Development at 332-2713.
The final piece of Focus The Nation's teach-in model will be a program called the “Choose Your Future” vote. All students, faculty and community participants will be encouraged to vote on what they think are the top five solutions to global warming and climate change from a list of 10 to 15 available Jan. 21 at www.focusthenation.org. Results will be presented nationally in mid-February. All students who vote on the Choose Your Future ballot will be eligible to win a $10,000 leadership scholarship for a project to be completed by end of August 2008.
For more information on Allegheny College and its participation in Focus The Nation, visit www.focusthenation.org or call 814-332-2506.
