Focus the Nation: January 31, HUB-Auditorium

Penn State Joins Largest Teach-In in U.S. History: Thousands of campuses help focus nation on solutions to global warming

January 23, 2008

On January 31, 2008, The Pennsylvania State University will participate in Focus The Nation, an unprecedented teach-in on global warming solutions. "Today's college students are truly the greatest generation," says Lewis & Clark professor of economics Dr. Eban Goodstein, author and project director for Focus The Nation. "No other generation has ever had to face this kind of civilizational challenge. And we as educators would be failing if we did not prepare them with the tools to meet this challenge."

Penn State's event will take place on Thursday, January 31, 2008, from 9:00am to 5:00pm in the HUB Auditorium. The event will feature presentations and conversations with climate change experts from across campus. Sessions will cover the science of climate change, its impacts on humanity and ecosystems, local and global solutions, and a special panel featuring some of Penn State's members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the recent Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

Penn State's event is one of over 1,400 Focus the Nation events taking place nation-wide. This watershed event serves to raise awareness of and understanding about climate change in 2008 and beyond in order to have smarter action in response to this most important and challenging of issues.

The national event will kick off the night of Jan. 30, with the 2% Solution web cast produced by the National Wildlife Federation and aired by the Earth Day Network. Panelists will include actor Edward Norton, Stanford climate scientist Steve Schneider, Hunter Lovins, CEO, Natural Capitalism and environmental justice leader, Van Jones, executive director, Ella Baker Center in Oakland, Calif.

For more information on Penn State and their participation in Focus The Nation, please visit http://pennstatefocusthenation.org, or contact Seth Baum at sbaum[at]psu.edu.

Penn State Focus the Nation would not be possible without the generous support donated by the following organizations and departments: Rock Ethics Institute; College of Earth & MineralSciences; Penn State Institutes ofEnergy & the Environment; UPAC; WPSU; Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy; Sustainability Coalition; UnderDoGs; Eco Action; Engineers for a Sustainable World; Dept. of Geography

Can't Attend? View the Live-Stream!

The Penn State event will be filmed by WPSU and will also be live-streamed using Adobe Connect. A Penn State userID is required to log into the Adobe Connect system. If you do not have a userID, please obtain one via a Friends of Penn State account. Follow the instructions and use your created ID to access the presentation.

Education Technology Services is providing online streaming of the event.
To view the presentation, live, please login at the following address: https://breeze.psu.edu/focusthenation/ and follow the instructions.
Please log in at least 15 minutes before the scheduled speaker begins.
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Tentative Schedule:

900-945: Opening Remarks
Jeremy Cohen, Professor of Media Studies, Associate Vice President, Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, founder of the Penn State Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy: Civic engagement
Adam Rome, Associate Professor of History: History of environmental movements

945-1100: Climate Science
Elizabeth Crisfield, Presenter in Al Gore's The Climate Project: Climate change fundamentals
Robert Crane, Professor of Geography, Director of AESEDA: Multi-scale climate modeling
Lee Kump, Professor of Geosiences: Climate change in Earth history

1115-1230: Climate Impacts
Brent Yarnal, Professor of Geography, Director of CIRA: Natural hazards and vulnerability assessment
Petra Tschakert, Assistant Professor of Geography: Rural livelihoods and sustainability
Denice Wardrop, Associate Director of Penn State Cooperative Wetlands Center: Ecosystem fitness

1230-1: Intermission/Film Screening
Water: past & present. A documentary by the children of the Himalayas. Produced by The Mountain Project: Christopher Hoadley, Associate Professor of Instructional Systems and Information Sciences & Technology; Sameer Honwad; and Ken Tamminga, Professor of Landscape Architecture.

1-215: IPCC Panel
William Easterling, Professor of Geography, Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Coordinating Lead Author of IPCC AR4 WGII (Chapter 5): Climate change impacts on agriculture
Klaus Keller, Assistant Professor of Geosciences, Contributing Author of IPCC AR4 WGII (Chapter 19): Abrupt climate change and climate-economy modelling
Anne Thompson, Professor of Meteorology, Contributing Author of IPCC AR1 WGI: Atmospheric chemistry and global change

230-345: Global Solutions
Fan Zhang, Assistant Professor of Energy Policy and Economics: Market-based climate policy
James McCarthy, Associate Professor of Geography: Political ecology and environmental governance
Nancy Tuana, Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Rock Ethics Institute: Ethical dimensions of climate change

400-500: Local Solutions
Andy Lau, Associate Professor of Engineering: Sustainable design
Dorothy Blair, Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Science, Technology, and Society: Sustainable food choices