Tufts students and faculty kicked off participation yesterday in Focus on the Nation, a country-wide initiative to raise awareness about global warming. The group will host a panel of Democratic Congressmen and other speakers on campus today to discuss climate change.
Focus the Nation aims to bring global warming into the limelight during this election year. As part of the initiative, some professors integrated material about climate change into their classes yesterday.
But technical issues prevented students from partaking in a live, national Web cast last night featuring prominent scientists and leaders. The interactive video would have connected the students to environmental advocates from locations across the country, allowing the students to vote on various issues by text message.
Stanford University climate scientist Stephen Schneider, actor Edward Norton, and the climate justice activist Van Jones participated in the online discussion.
In today's event, Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who represents Medford and Somerville, and Michael Capuano (D-Mass.), who represents Boston and Cambridge, will speak to students.
Markey, who chairs the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Climate Change, will appear via Web feed from Washington, D.C.
Capuano, State Sen. Jim Marzilli and Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone will also attend tonight's event in Cabot, which will start at 5 p.m.
"The more people that ask questions about climate change, the more the candidates are going to have to respond to it. And if we make the climate something that everyone is concerned about, then policy comes next," said sophomore Adam Frank, the undergraduate coordinator of Focus the Nation at Tufts.
Education about climate change is another component of Focus the Nation. Before classes started in January, Tufts Institute of the Environment helped to put on a climate change literacy seminar run by faculty members for faculty members.
Chemistry professor Jonathan Kenny presented at the seminar. He became interested in the movement after a student involved in Focus the Nation approached him last semester.
"Faculty at Tufts are very environmentally concerned across disciplines," Kenny said, noting that there was a desire among all professors to learn from each other.
Kenny said he will give credit to students in his environmental chemistry class if they attend Thursday's event and write about it in their class journals. He has also asked students to e-mail him cell phone pictures of themselves at the event for a photo collage.
Assistant Professor of Physics Hugh Gallagher became interested in the Focus the Nation initiative after attending the faculty seminar, and he brought up climate change in his "Physics 12" class yesterday.
"I have a series of graphs that show where we have to go globally and nationally in terms of reducing our carbon emissions ... you can't look at those kinds of projections without realizing that we're totally going to have to overhaul the energy infrastructure of our country," Gallagher said.
Kenny said that within the past two years the sense of urgency on campus regarding global warming has increased. Enrollment in his environmental chemistry class jumped from 18 students in 2006 to 48 students this spring.
"I think that this is the time that Tufts can establish a role in climate change and climate justice," Kenny said.
Following tomorrow's panel discussion, a poster session will take place in the Fletcher School's Hall of Flags, where students will display their personal research on climate change. Audience members will have a chance to mingle with some of the panelists.
