Wk 9: Summative Session
Faculty Panel and Workshop by the Evergreen Clean Energy Committee
In week 9 of the series, the Evergreen State College campus Clean Energy Committee will discuss their proposals and plans for reducing the carbon footprint on our campus. Prior to their presentation, and as a wrap up to these several weeks of outstanding speakers – all involving topics relating to Modeling Climate Change, a panel of two Evergreen faculty will share their responses to this year’s stellar Plato Lectures. Cheri Lucas Jennings and Richard Weiss, who have attended all of the many facets of this series, will share their response to the speakers featured and provide a short recap of Plato events.
Cheri Lucas Jennings, a faculty member in the field of Environmental Policy and Public Law who is teaching the program Energy Systems and Climate Change with Astro-Physicist EJ Zita this fall, will discuss the several speakers who have brought policy-based issues to the fore – from our initial speakers Gerardo Chin-Leo and John Perkins to Jeremy Littell’s discussion of the loss of carbon sinks through forest devastation, to our geo-engineer Richard Gammon and featured expert on cap and trade versus “old fashioned” regulation Eli Levitt.
Richard Weiss was one of two principle organizers of this year’s Plato Series (along with Judy Cushing). He is a computer science and mathematics faculty member teaching statistics in the Data and Information: Quantitative Ecology and seminar in Mathematical Order of Nature programs. Richard will discuss our scientists and experts in the fields of bio-engineering and climate modeling – from our opening discussion of the uses of models for policy makers as provided by Dominique Bachelet to a fulsome review of the constraints of fine tuning by Phil Duffy to Bruce Hungate and the spatial studies required for Oregon’s Willamette Valley region as shared by John Bolte.
We hope to provide a terrific opportunity for program students who have attended the series throughout the quarter to reflect upon what we have learned before we hear in closing from the campus Clean Energy Committee.
About Clean Energy: In 2005, a group of student at the Evergreen State College wrote the Clean Energy Initiative to promote renewable energy and energy conservation on campus. This initiated the student fee of $1 per credit. The Clean Energy Committee (CEC) was established to delegate the spending of this fee under the initiative. The goal of the CEC is to help Evergreen reach its sustainability commitment of carbon neutral and waste free by 2020. Roughly half of the money is used to purchase green power through Puget Sound Energy. The rest is available as grant money for on-campus projects that include the education, research, or implementation of clean energy or energy reduction. We want to get students involved with this movement and keep the community updated on our progress. During this presentation, the Clean Energy Committee will share their current projects, student projects they have funded in the past, and describe the procedure for applying for grants for Evergreen clean energy projects.
For more information, contact: Dani Madrone, Clean Energy Committee Coordinator, (360) 867-6555, cleanenergy@evergreen.edu
Companion Reading: While there is no companion reading per se for this week’s events, we have posted additional references about climate change, including some Alternative Views of Modeling Climate. If you have suggestions for this web page, alternative or not, please email them to Judy Cushing judyc@evergreen.edu.
( Note to Students: Please be aware that your program might have reading or writing assignments, so check your respective program web site. )
[1] This Lecture Series is sponsored by Evergreen’s PLATO Royalty Fund, established with royalties from computer assisted instruction (CAI) software, written by Evergreen faculty John Aikin Cushing and students in the early 1980’s, for the Control Data PLATO system.