Spring Break
Spring Campus Climate Challenge Begins
Timothy Bleasdale
Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: News
In the now famous film "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore declares that "There are good people in both [political] parties that hold [global warming] at arm's distance because if they recognize it then the moral imperative to make big changes is inescapable."
ConnPIRG agrees. And in recognition of this "moral imperative," they kicked off the Spring 2007 Campus Climate Challenge with a showing of the film. The event drew a diverse crowd ranging from freshmen to graduate students.
"The Campus Climate Challenge is trying to help prevent global warming in any way that UConn can," said Corrie Colwell, a 2nd-semester political science major and one of ConnPIRG's co-coordinators for the Campus Climate Challenge campaign.
The Campus Climate Challenge kick off event also included a promotion for several petitions. One was a photo petition thanking Congressman Joe Courtney for agreeing to sponsor the Safe Climate Act (SCA). According to Colwell and her co-coordinators, Courtney agreed to sponsor the act last night at the urging of ConnPIRG and several other environmental groups. 'Signatories' of this petition had their photograph taken holding a giant comic-book-like speech bubble with a thank you message in it. The photographs will be sent to the congressman later as part of the petition.
Courtney was originally scheduled to hold a question and answer session following the film but was unexpectedly called back to Washington D.C. the night before.
According to Colwell, the group chose to show Gore's film because it presents many facts that are relevant and important to raising awareness of global warming, and does so in an entertaining and stimulating way.
Although the documentary, which has been nominated for two Oscars, has been criticized as being too politically-biased, it has managed to give greater visibility to the shape that the climate change debate is currently taking. It is no longer commonplace to find dissenting voices outright denying global warming. Now people seem to realize the existence of a warming trend while questioning or denying any human correlation.
ConnPIRG agrees. And in recognition of this "moral imperative," they kicked off the Spring 2007 Campus Climate Challenge with a showing of the film. The event drew a diverse crowd ranging from freshmen to graduate students.
"The Campus Climate Challenge is trying to help prevent global warming in any way that UConn can," said Corrie Colwell, a 2nd-semester political science major and one of ConnPIRG's co-coordinators for the Campus Climate Challenge campaign.
The Campus Climate Challenge kick off event also included a promotion for several petitions. One was a photo petition thanking Congressman Joe Courtney for agreeing to sponsor the Safe Climate Act (SCA). According to Colwell and her co-coordinators, Courtney agreed to sponsor the act last night at the urging of ConnPIRG and several other environmental groups. 'Signatories' of this petition had their photograph taken holding a giant comic-book-like speech bubble with a thank you message in it. The photographs will be sent to the congressman later as part of the petition.
Courtney was originally scheduled to hold a question and answer session following the film but was unexpectedly called back to Washington D.C. the night before.
According to Colwell, the group chose to show Gore's film because it presents many facts that are relevant and important to raising awareness of global warming, and does so in an entertaining and stimulating way.
Although the documentary, which has been nominated for two Oscars, has been criticized as being too politically-biased, it has managed to give greater visibility to the shape that the climate change debate is currently taking. It is no longer commonplace to find dissenting voices outright denying global warming. Now people seem to realize the existence of a warming trend while questioning or denying any human correlation.
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