It’s not too late to get involved in what organizers are calling an unprecedented U.S.-wide teach-in focused on solutions to global warming.
Organized by “Focus the Nation,” the teach-in — scheduled to culminate on Thursday, Jan. 31 — aims to get millions of students, teachers, people of faith and other citizens together in various locations to discuss just one topic: how Americans can start tackling climate change now.
A project of the Green House Network that’s being directed by Eban Goodstein, an economics professor at Lewis and Clark College, Focus the Nation set out to sign up 1,000 colleges and universities across the U.S. for the teach-in. Organizers have more than met that goal, with 1,600-plus organizations planning to participate as of Tuesday, Jan. 29: from the University of Alaska, Anchorage, to Western Wyoming Community College.
The event officially kicks off on Wednesday, Jan. 30, with a live, one-hour Webcast of “The 2% Solution” starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time on Earth Day Television. The interactive program will feature, among others, Stephen Schneider, a climate scientist at Stanford University; Hunter Lovins, president and founder of Natural Capitalism Inc.; and Van Jones, an attorney, green jobs pioneer and founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.
Why “The 2% Solution?” Becaue keeping global warming below about 4 degrees Fahrenheit tops will take an 80 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by developed countries by mid-century. That’s a cut of about 2 percent per year.
So what happens after Jan. 31? Following the teach-in, Focus the Nation is urging participants to set up roundtable discussions with their elected representatives to discuss solutions to climate change. Organizers are also looking ahead to what they’re calling a “critical month in human history”: February 2009, the month in which the newly elected U.S. president and Congress start setting their agenda for the nation.
Can we really expect the nation’s leaders to take a drastic turn for the better one year from now? Time will tell, but it’s certainly a goal worth focusing on.
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Shirley Siluk Gregory
Shirley Siluk Gregory, a transplanted Chicagoan now living in Northwest Florida, represents the progressive half of Green Options' Red, Green and Blue segment. She holds a bachelor's degree in Geological Sciences from Northwestern University but graduated in 1984, just when the market for geologists was flatter than the Florida landscape. Just as well, though: she had little interest in spending her life either in a laboratory or, heaven forbid, an oil field. So, of course, she went into journalism. After extremely low-paying but fun and educational stints at several suburban Chicago weeklies and dailies, Shirley and her then-boyfriend/now-husband Scott found themselves displaced by a media buyout and spending the next several years working as freelancers. Among their credits: The Chicago Tribune, a publication for the manufactured-housing industry, and Web Hosting Magazine, a now-defunct publication that came and went with the dotcom era. Shirley's always been concerned about nature and conservation (and an avid pack-rat, as her family can attest to), but became even more rabidly interested in the environment primarily due to two factors: the growing signs that global warming was real and threatening, and the birth of her son, Noah, in 2003. Suddenly, the prospect of a world that might not be quite as habitable in 40 or 50 years took on a whole new, and personal, meaning. Living where she lives now also helped light the fire of Shirley's environmental awareness: her hometown was severely damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and beaten up again by Hurricane Dennis in 2005. That, and the fact that she and her family were vacationing in New Orleans until the day before Katrina -- and spent 12 hours driving home for a trip that normally takes 3 -- has made Shirley deeply appreciate how fragile our lifestyles are, and how dependent they are on sound management of natural resources and sustainable living practices. That's why she's become a passionate reader and writer about all things green and sustainable.
3 Responses to Focus the Nation … on Global Warming
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Hi Ivan,
You’re right, and I do realize that America includes more than the U.S. (and that many outside the U.S. don’t appreciate the use of the term “America” to refer just to the U.S.). I really do try to avoid it, and thought I hadn’t done so here. The only place I used it was to refer to U.S. citizens as Americans, which they are of course. I understand the need to make the distinction, but U.S.-ans doesn’t really work. I’ll try to keep the reference as “U.S. citizens” rather than “Americans” in future.
I do appreciate your feelings (believe me, now, more than ever, considering the U.S.’s poor performance as a global citizen in so many ways in recent years).
Sorry if my phrasing bothered you — I understand your feelings completely.
(First and foremost, I would like to apologize for any English mistake I might have commited in this letter.)
I would like to ask you to not talk about your country as “America” anymore. Since I am Brazilian, I am also part of America, and don’t feel part of the *United States*. All of us are part of the American continent. If your country is named “The United States of America”, it means exactly that: you are _*a group of states*_ inside the continent, not the continent itself.
If you need a smaller name to call yourselves, please use “United States”, “U.S.”, “Anglo-America” (that is all right, since it excludes Mexico, Central and South America), “N.A.”, “U.S.A.”… Anything but simply “America”.
You may not be aware, but you anger us, Latin-Americans, when you take the whole continent as your country. So, please do not do it again. To sum up, “America” is our continent, not only your country. Please again, find another name to refer to your nation.
I look foward to hearing from you soon.
Yours faithfully,
Ivan Linares, from America. South America.