Students hold panel discussion after showing climate change movie
Submitted by Shawn Reeves
2007-03-04 20:57:39
March 4, 2007; Brookline, MA
In a well planned interaction with their local community today, the Environmental Club at the Dexter and Southfield School showed the public An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary recently awarded best documentary (and best music/song) by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. About 150 members of the school and the public enjoyed exhibits, light refreshments, the documentary, and a questions put to a panel of three experts.
One of the experts, Stephen C. Nodvin, Ph.D., a professor at Mt. Ida College in nearby Newton, was trained and certified to be a "Climate Messenger" for The Climate Project, the organization behind the documentary. To find related events across the country, see their website:
<a href="http://www.theclimateproject.org/">http://www.theclimateproject.org/</a>
Also on the panel were Marc Plante, Ph.D. a scientist, sales director at Citizenre, a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, American Chemical Society, and Citizens Advocating Renewable Energy in Middleton, MA; and Michael J. Iacono, Senior Staff Scientist, Radiation and Climate Group, Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc., and an observer and climatologist, Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory.
<a href="http://www.citizenre.com/">http://www.citizenre.com/</a>
<a href="http://www.bluehill.org/">http://www.bluehill.org/</a>
Exhibitors included Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, Citizenre Corporation, the school's Environmental Club, National Public Radio's Living on Earth, Mt. Ida College, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and EnergyTeachers.org, all who presented attendees with scientific data, ideas for reduction of carbon emissions and energy waste, educational opportunities, and ways residents and businesses in Massachusetts can install renewable energy generators with help from the Commonwealth's Renewable Energy Trust.
<a href="http://www.loe.org/">http://www.loe.org/</a> (Living on Earth)
<a href="http://www.mountida.edu/">http://www.mountida.edu/</a>
<a href="http://masstech.org/renewableenergy/index.htm">http://masstech.org/renewableenergy/index.htm</a>
<a href="http://ucsusa.org/">http://ucsusa.org/</a>
The Environmental Club gave away about 100 compact fluorescent light bulbs; If those replace incandescent lights in the recipients' homes, then about 50 tons less carbon dioxide will be emitted thanks to this effort.
Two of the students hosting the event presented questions, gathered from emails, to the panel: How might the local climate change in the near future? Where would policy change have a better effect, in developed or in developing countries? What can we do personally to mitigate climate change? Is harmful global warming inevitable, or can we turn it back/keep it at bay? Afterwards, the panel discussed questions from adults and children in the audience.
<a href="http://www.claycenter.org/">http://www.claycenter.org/</a>