Global environmental organizations to host teach-in of environmental awareness
“Today we will be discussing global warming,” is not a common introduction heard in a physics or architecture class. But Focus the Nation, a national teach-in CU is participating in on Jan. 31, will aim to make this the introduction in every classroom.
Focus the Nation at CU is a group of students who will be hosting the event along with the Environmental Center.
“It’ll be like the ’60s and ’70s campuses when the whole campus focuses on a controversial issue,” said Robert Hall, the energy program manger for the Environmental Center.
CU will join more than 1,000 other colleges, universities and groups also registered to participate. Teachers will be asked, but not required, to link global climate change into their curriculum on this day.
“A psychology professor may talk about how some humans are denying global warming,” Hall said. “A journalism professor may talk about the media’s coverage of global warming or an advertising class may talk about marketing the subject.”
Hall said the point is to get the class involved in the topic, and then open it up for discussion.
“Students could then participate and share their feelings and thoughts,” Hall said.
Professors are also invited to bring their classes to a climate change event on campus, said Galen Brown, a sophomore economics and environmental studies major who is the coordinator for Focus the Nation at CU.
Brown first heard about Focus the Nation last February.
“I liked the idea and asked why CU wasn’t listed as a participating school,” Brown said. “I talked to the Environmental Center director who asked if I wanted to coordinate it.”
Brown presented the idea to the Boulder Faculty Assembly, the representative body of faculty at CU, on Nov. 1, 2007.
“They passed a unanimous resolution to voluntarily support Focus the Nation,” Brown said.
Brown said he is unsure how many teachers will actually participate, but estimates it to be about 40 percent.
Physics Professor Dan Dessau was unaware of the teach-in, but said if he was reminded of it, he would try to participate.
“Next semester I am teaching a solid state physics course,” Dessau said. “In the course, I will be teaching about solar cells and how they work. So, I could bring up energy renewal and solar energy that day.”
In addition to encouraging teachers to bring up the topic in the classroom, Brown said they want as many different campus groups as possible to host some sort of event that day.
“The group’s vision is that a student can’t get through campus that day without encountering something about global warming,” Hall said.
Steve Fenberg, executive director of the voter registration group New Era Colorado, said they will be on campus to focus on the political and civic education side of the issue.
“We will try to be there as a resource to give people a better understanding of where global warming and climate change is in the political process,” Fenberg said.
Hall said that recent surveys show that students are “concerned but undereducated” about climate change.
“They know enough to be worried but don’t know what to do about it,” Hall said. “They don’t talk to their friends about it.”
Hall said that he hopes this day can change that.
“This is one day to have a whole campus focused on the issue and to give students the opportunity to talk about it,” Hall said.
Kyle Staarmann, a senior marketing major, said she thinks students need to be knowledgeable about climate change and the “small things” everyone can do to help.
“Climate change is always kind of in the back of my mind,” Staarmann said. “I try to do small things to cut down my driving time and energy use, like turning off the lights when I don’t need to have them on.”
Staarmann said she thinks this event is good because it is targeting the group of people that matter most.
“I think it’s important for our generation to know what’s truly going on because we’re going to have to deal with the consequences,” Staarmann said.
Contact Freelance Writer Heather Smith at heather.c.smith@colorado.edu
