|
SENC Global Warming Conference to be held at UNCW June 8th and 9th, 2007
Wilmington, N.C.- The citizens of Southeastern North Carolina will be offered an intriguing guide to one of the leading topics of interest concerning life on earth as it will be in the coming age. A regional conference on global warming will be open to the public at UNCW’s Warwick Center on Friday and Saturday, June 8th and 9th, 2007. The conference is entitled, GLOBAL WARMING: WHAT DO WE KNOW? WHAT CAN WE DO?—questions that will be addressed by more than a dozen scientists, scholars and environmental activists at the two-day university backed event. The conference will open on Friday with an evening reception, followed by a presentation by Dr. Lawrence Cahoon of UNCW’s Marine Biology Department, entitled “Living in a Warmer World: Heaven or Hell?” Saturday morning’s keynote speaker will be Dr Bert G. Drake, the Senior Research Plant Physiologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. His talk is will be, “Beyond ‘An Inconvenient Truth’: How Can We Control Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Climate change?” Dr. Drake spent twenty years studying the effects of elevated CO2 emissions on a wetland in the Chesapeake Bay, and has also served as guest professor at the Institute for Plant Physiology at the University of Vienna and guest scientist at the University of Paris, Gif Sur Yvette, France. He has taught at the University of Delaware in Newark, American University and George Washington University. Dr. Drake was a member of site review teams for NASA, DOE, USDA, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Following a panel discussion involving Cape Fear area environmental organizations, afternoon workshops at the conference will be held on such topics as “green” transportation, food supply issues, and renewable energy sources. Workshop presenters include Dr. Mike Mallen from UNCW Marine Science, County Engineer Greg Thompson, UNCW Sociologist Dr. Steve McNamee, and award winning journalist Frank Tursi. Special workshops will also be held on such topics as the development of cooler, greener cities, hurricane and other weather impacts, local government and global warming, in addition to two-hour think shops on global warming science and poverty, racism and global warming. The public is invited to participate in all panel discussions. “There is no more timely topic of more long-term consequence than global warming,” states Penny Patterson, co-chair of the Global Warming Conference Committee. “We human beings are changing the nature of our earthly home, with possibly disastrous consequences. This conference is being held to share current information on climate change and offer positive ways we can respond to these challenges facing our planet.” Registration for the conference begins April 1st, 2007. Between April 1st and May 25th, tickets for the event will be $20. From May 26th through June 5th, tickets will be $30. Due to limitations with seating and dining facilities, no tickets will be sold at the door. Registration may be done on line at http://www.globalwarmingnc.com, or by phoning 910-962-3195. The conference has been jointly developed by the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Wilmington in partnership with the UNCW Division for Public Service and Continuing Studies, joined in sponsorship by the North Carolina Aquarium, along with other additional community supporters and contributors. For more information, the public can visit http://www.globalwarmingnc.com on the Web, or write to the Global Warming Conference Committee, at the UU Fellowship of Wilmington– 4313 Lake Avenue, Wilmington, NC 28403. Information can also be obtained by e-mail at contactus@globalwarmingnc.com
|
|
Carolina Civic Voice Winter 2006-07 Vol. 6, No 4 |