Focus the Nation, a teach-in event, came to UO to teach students about how to reverse climate change
By: Brent Henzi | Freelance reporter | Issue date: 2/1/08 Section: News

The University is one of nearly 1,100 universities and colleges around the country that gave students a chance to learn about the effects of climate change by participating in the Focus the Nation teach-in event on Thursday.

More than 10 University organizations, including OSPIRG and Campus Recycling, participated in the nation's largest ever teach-in event, lining the EMU all day with booths where students could get information on the effects of climate change and how to get involved.

University student Tyler Polich, a coordinator of the event and Campus Recycling employee, said that educating students about climate change is the point of the event and that they accomplished that goal.

"This is definitely a step in the right direction. We are trying to bridge the gap between students and real world problems," Polich said during the teach-in. "It's an important issue, and I feel like people are learning, which is what we hoped for. We want students to get involved on a personal level, as small actions add up."

University President Dave Frohnmayer began the inaugural event with a speech targeting the education of students, particularly those on the University's campus.

Eban Goodstein, an economics professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland , started the Focus the Nation project with a goal to bring education on climate change to schools around the country. He also intended to have an event during regular school hours, not in the evening when he feels that communication on the problem is just preaching to the choir.

Lesson plans and ideas for how universities can organize an event were posted on the project's Web site, but Goodstein noted that what schools should do is up to them.

The University's schedule not only included a fair, but also speeches by 13 professors on topics ranging from the business aspects of climate change to who is responsible for the climate crisis.

"The idea is to get students in contact with professionals on the issue," Polich said. "That way students can fully understand what is happening."

The idea for the national teach-in was ignited two years ago by Goodstein and planning for the University's event, including calling professors and building booths, has also been in the works for quite some time.

"This is a huge process, and we have been working on it for months," said Kelly Zillmann, a University graduate and employee of the recycling center. "But it shows students' awareness that they are the future. To unite schools like this and educate people, it's a great thing."

The teach-in gave University student Kathy Redden a chance to promote the campus organization Students for Reusable Bags, but it also provided an opportunity for all the organizations on campus to come together, she said. This reflects the newly formed Sustainability Coalition, which comprises organizations on campus that deal with climate change issues.

"The idea of the coalition is to bring together organizations and make a bigger impact on campus than if done separately," Redden said. "This way we can get together and not step on each others' feet."

Briana Orr, a University student and volunteer at the event, added that the coalition will build power in dealing with certain issues, but also gives students an easy opportunity to get involved.

"The coalition is a great way for people new to campus to find a group that suits them and get involved," Orr said. "The U of O is one of the best places to be if you want to learn and be a part of change."

The Eugene-based organization NextStep, which specializes in electronic waste recycling and refurbishes computers for those that can't afford them, was involved with the teach-in. Intern and University student Sarah Dryfoos-Guss said there is a lot the University can do to help reduce climate change.

"This event is a huge step forward in recognizing the severity of the situation. We are a consume-and-throw-away society that needs to learn the effects of this," Dryfoos-Guss said. "I encourage students to look at their own consumption. If you do a lot of little things it ends up making a big difference."

As for life after the teach-in, Polich feels that more events related to climate change will be in store for the future, including plans for an event on Earth Day in April.

"It's something that is catching on," Polich said. "We are moving to younger generations that care and are aware of the problem. We hope to keep taking events up a notch and have a bigger impact in changing more minds in the right direction."

By Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

Published: February 1, 2008 07:57AM

They may be in denial elsewhere in the country about global warming, but that's not the case in Eugene and Springfield , community leaders asserted Thursday at a first-ever Climate Summit at the University of Oregon .

Representatives from a dozen agencies took turns outlining the multiple efforts already under way - from "no idling" policies for school buses to the capture of methane gas from cow manure - to reduce the region's release of greenhouse gases.

Amid all the congratulatory praise, however, UO Sustainability Director Steve Mital offered a cautionary voice - especially in light of an international goal to reduce the world's greenhouse emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

"We've heard a lot about pilot projects that will inspire and make a marginal impact on emissions," Mital said. "But if we're serious about these goals, we've got to look much more comprehensively."

The morning summit, which drew not quite 100 people, kicked off a full day of events at the UO, part of a national "teach-in" on climate change. Thursday afternoon, 13 UO professors and others offered public lectures that looked at climate change from geographic, philosophic, economic, political, legal, journalistic and other perspectives. Thursday night, state energy analyst Chris Dymond was slated to give a keynote speech on renewable energy at the second annual Lane County Energy Round-Up.

In introductory remarks at the summit, UO President Dave Frohnmayer chided "intellectually paralyzed pundits" and others who deny the scientific reality of global warming. The obstacles to action are many - including political and financial opposition, complacency and fear - but must be overcome, Frohnmayer said.

Representatives from the Springfield , Eugene and Bethel school districts described an array of efforts to address global warming, from the integration of energy-efficient features in new school buildings to the use of biodiesel in school buses and "green" cleaning products in classrooms. Plus, global warming, recycling and energy conservation are now standard topics of instruction, they said.

At Lane Community College , students can now choose to pursue two-year degrees in energy management, renewable energy or water conservation, Sustainability Coordinator Jennifer Hayward said. The college also has a full-time energy analyst and full-time recycling coordinator.

The college is pursuing a federal Environmental Protection Agency grant for teacher training that would lead to the introduction of sustainability issues in at least 200 classes, Hayward said.

Tom Williams, key account manager at the Eugene Water & Electric Board, won applause when he was introduced as having driven a car to work, rather than riding his bicycle, only five times in the 22 years he has worked at EWEB.

But Williams also fielded a pointed question on why EWEB's proposed new operations complex to be built in west Eugene does not include solar photovoltaic features. Williams said EWEB commissioners tried to find a middle ground between controlling project costs and adding as many sustainability features as possible. He said he's hopeful that funds can be found to add photovoltaics.

Most utilities, including EWEB and the Emerald People's Utility District, offer some sort of "green power" or wind power program to customers willing to pay a little more for cleanly generated power.

At EPUD, about 3.5 percent of customers are enrolled in the utility's green power program, spokesman Joe Savage said. While that may strike some as low, it's actually in the high range compared with participation rates across the country, Savage said.

Michael McKenzie-Bahr, community and economic development coordinator for Lane County , said the county's environmental efforts include looking at waiving certain fees for builders of sustainable projects.

Lane Transit District General Manager Mark Pangborn said mass transit can play a crucial role in communities such as Eugene , where an estimated 51 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions are related to transportation.

Riding the bus or, better yet, bicycling or walking, "is the most efficient one thing that any household can do to reduce its carbon footprint," he said.

Nationwide 'teach-in' planned to address climate change

In Springfield, Mo., college students are about to see quite vividly how much energy they consume. Piles of coal will be on display in proportion to what's needed each day to power their dorms, computers, and dining halls.

At Radford University in Virginia, students may stumble upon a mock fight between a windmill and a smokestack (costumes courtesy of the campus Green Team).

At the University of Vermont in Burlington, audience members will be encouraged to bike or walk to a one-woman show in which the fictional first lady calls for a boycott against sex until the nation starts a serious dialogue about climate change.

The creative tactics are designed to draw students into a series of events this coming week known as Focus the Nation: Global Warming Solutions for America. Organizers bill the culminating day, Jan. 31, as the largest teach-in in the nation's history, drawing parallels to the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s and '70s. More than 1,500 institutions, most of them colleges and universities, will host classes, documentaries, performances, energy-saving competitions, and discussions with political leaders.

Eban Goodstein, the man behind the mission, speaks about it urgently: "What our kids have to do is truly heroic," he says. "If they're going to stabilize the climate for their children, they have to rewire the entire planet with clean-energy technology."

Mr. Goodstein is an economics professor at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., and an author on environmental issues. The pace needs to pick up in order to hold global warming to low levels before it is too late, he says. "We owe our young people some focused discussion about the critical importance of the choices that are going to get made over the next couple years."

The impact of Focus the Nation depends on whether it preaches to the choir or fulfills its potential to reach a broader audience and inspire long-term commitment. A key question is, "Will [the students] take the message to their parents and grandparents?... Will it move from the campus teach-ins to the backyard barbecues of early summer?" says Gordon Mitchell, a communication professor at the University of Pittsburgh who has studied rhetoric and social movements. "That will in large part determine if this is a wave, versus a ripple."

The Focus the Nation website ( www.focusthenation.org ) has offered templates for activities, but a decentralized network of faculty, students, and other volunteers has seized the opportunity to tailor events for local audiences. Professors in fields as diverse as astronomy, economics, and classics will use class time to link their subjects to climate change.

That's what appeals to Galen Brown, the 19-year-old student coordinator for events at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "It targets everybody," he says. "One of the biggest problems with the climate campaign over the past few years has been the negativity.... I think it's best to harp on the positive - how we can stop [global warming] and how businesses can be efficient and make money while being green."

For Paul Weihe, a biology professor at Central College in Pella, Iowa, the scope of the event is unprecedented in his 10 years there. "People understand that this is the issue of our time," he says. His campus is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America, and the keynote speaker there will be Cal DeWitt, a minister and scientist who founded the Evangelical Environmental Network. "We've got so many different people from different backgrounds [participating]. In the past, this would be something the science geeks were into," Mr. Weihe says.

Alexander Wait, who teaches biology at Missouri State University in Springfield, will be heading to some local hangouts to help "break through the apathy." He'll give a talk at local bars during the "Save the Ales" pub crawl. With breweries facing a hops shortage, he says, "if you care about beer, you should care about climate change."

On the edge of Lake Champlain, the University of Vermont is hosting a week of events, which organizers hope will be just the start of continued action. They expect crowds at the Sustainable Burlington Design Charrette, a structured brainstorming session on ways the city can improve everything from transportation to energy usage. Local officials will be on hand to hear ideas, which will be archived for use by the mayor's recently created environmental council.

"It seems like climate change can just be overwhelming, [but these activities] show that we can actually do things personally and collectively to fight it," says Valerie Esposito, a PhD student and organizer at UVM. In April, the winner of a student sustainable-design contest will receive $3,000 to implement his or her idea on campus.

Timing Focus the Nation during the presidential primaries was deliberate, to encourage voters to press candidates on global warming. The related "Green Democracy" forums are designed to be nonpartisan, featuring groups and speakers of all political stripes, including governors and members of the US Congress.

There's much that adults can do to set the stage now, by investing in the creation of green technologies, Goodstein says, but only today's young people "have the moral authority to speak for the future.... So it's really important to engage [them] directly in dialogue with political leaders."

Outreach to established political leaders is one way in which these events differs from the Vietnam era teach-ins, Professor Mitchell says. Those were offered as the "more palatable carrots" paired with the "sticks" of sit-ins. But such pressure "is missing from this [Focus the Nation] exercise," he says. "People are not saying, we have to divest the university from stocks in Exxon, [for example].... It's all about 'Let's contact our congressional representatives.' It's very reformist, and in that sense it's a very sharp contrast with the message of the teach-ins from the Vietnam War era, that the establishment is corrupt.' "

Goodstein sees a different parallel: people feeling empowered to make change. Between 1960 and 1964, the American mood shifted from accepting segregation - even if most thought it was morally wrong - to a determination to end it, he says. By the same token, "The ultimate purpose of Focus the Nation ... is to move America by 2009 to the point where we say, 'Of course we can stop global warming. Of course we must.' "

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