MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — A nationwide initiative to educate the country about global climate change got its official start Saturday, September 30, at Middlebury College.
The effort, called "Focus the Nation," seeks to coordinate teams of faculty, students and staff at more than a thousand colleges and high schools in the United States, jump-starting a national discussion on the goal of "stabilizing the climate in the 21st century." The project is designed to culminate on January 31, 2008 — in the middle of the presidential primary season — with one-day, national symposia held simultaneously on campuses across the country.
The first official event was the gathering in Middlebury's Chip Kenyon '85 Arena on Saturday. About 150 people, including Middlebury students, faculty and staff, were on hand for the day-long session, which included a presentation by event organizer Jon Isham, an associate professor of economics at Middlebury; the official launch of Focus the Nation by project director Eban Goodstein, a professor of economics at Lewis & Clark College in Oregon; organizing sessions and regional meetings for volunteers from secondary schools and colleges throughout the Northeast; and a talk by Elysa Hammond of Clif Bar on her company's efforts to combat climate change and promote sustainability.
Middlebury's Isham believes that Focus the Nation might well "become 'the Earth Day 1970' catalyzing event that turns the national conversation about global warming from fatalism toward determination. This initiative has the potential to focus national attention for a day around a serious discussion of climate stabilization. And building on the leadership and pragmatism of today's youth climate movement, Focus the Nation can help all Americans envision and work toward a more hopeful, clean-energy future."
Nan Jenks-Jay, director of environmental affairs at Middlebury, spoke to the group late in the afternoon, after several Middlebury students, led by Jamie Henn, Class of '07, instructed the crowd in their "Shake Up the System" dance moves.
"I'm pleased that [Focus the Nation] opened at Middlebury College," said Jenks-Jay, noting that "Middlebury has been shaking up the system for some time now." She pointed to a new environmental center now under construction; the student-led 'Bio-Bus' national tour; the use of bio-diesel in vehicles on campus; last year's 40th anniversary of the program in environmental studies, during which the college dedicated an experimental wind turbine; and a campaign to install compact fluorescent light bulbs on campus and throughout Addison County, among other projects.
Jenks-Jay took the opportunity to announce that Middlebury's board of trustees had approved, earlier that day, the construction of a biomass plant to generate heat and power that's designed to reduce the college's emission of greenhouse gases by 12,500 metric tons each year. She said the biomass facility will be "a remarkable addition to our campus that will allow us to reduce our carbon footprint" and help Middlebury meet a goal of cutting its emission of greenhouse gases to 8 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2012. "And [the plant's] not hidden away somewhere," she said. "This will be right in the heart of the campus, front and center. We'll be able to point to it with pride." [Read more about the biomass project.]
Jenks-Jay applauded the participants in Focus the Nation for "taking the message forward." Jeremy Osborn '07, one of the Middlebury students who helped organize the event, was also upbeat. "Focus the Nation did an amazing job of bringing new constituencies together to discuss and build the climate change movement," he said. "The momentum we created in bringing together faculty, staff, students, teachers and community leaders of all ages to discuss how to accomplish this goal was in itself an incredible step in the right direction, and I expect it will only grow as the effort moves forward."
For his part, Eban Goodstein, the project director, closed the day by reminding everyone that climate-related events of recent years, such as the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, made it clear that "we have to face the facts now, not sometime in the future. We know that we face incredible challenges right now."
He said that in traveling across the country, the attitude he's found is, "Yeah, Focus the Nation. Let's do it." He believes that "people are ready for this. There's now a global awareness and concern."
Goodstein said that there is always a tendency, after attending a conference, "to say, 'That was cool,' and then go back to your lives. Don't do that. Make this your life. Go back to your communities and do what needs to be done."