Spring Break
Panel discusses global warming and effect on family relations
Katherine Smith
Issue date: 9/25/08 Section: News
A four member panel explored the connection between family relationships and global warming as part of a lecture series on climate change Wednesday evening.
The lecture, entitled "Family Life and Global Warming; Part 1: A Preliminary Conversation with Family Scholars," was held in the Konover Auditorium in the Dodd Center. The second part of the discussion is scheduled to be at the same location on Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, 2009.
Family Studies Alumni Society (FSAS), the Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS), Family Studies Undergraduate Committee of UConn and the American Association for Family and Consumer Sciences Connecticut Chapter sponsored the event, bringing in four speakers.
"It is simply in the nature of the members of the older generations of society to desire to leave a lasting legacy and for the older generations of today that means a positive impact on the environment," said Karl Pillemer, a gerontologist and the Director of Cornell's Institute for Translational Research on Aging.
Pillemer went on to explain that approximately a third of Americans are grandparents and therefore assume the nurturing role as such. He argued that grandparents play an integral role in educating and the younger generations how to live green and not consume as much.
"It's not about the money, it's how you spend the money … what are the value of things?" said Nancy H. Bull, associate director of the Cooperative Extension Service and a family resource specialist in reference to why older generations were more frugal and unlike the consumer generation.
According to Bull, those who lived through the Great Depression are more likely to be more green now because of their history and resistance to over consumption.
The next speaker, Kathryn Libal, an anthropologist and member of HDFS and the School of Social Works, spoke about the international ramifications of each county's carbon footprint.
"Climate change is the defining issue of human development of our generation," Libal said. "What we do today will last at least a century."
"I don't want to end the evening on a pessimistic note," said Ronald Sabatelli, the department head of HDFS. "But that's just how it is."
Sabatelli, the final speaker of the night painted a grim image of the environmental crisis. According to Sabatelli, in order for the problem to be fixed the entire American mindset has to change. Children must not be taught to merely consume and purchase to be happy, but rather find happiness in the world around them.
The lecture, entitled "Family Life and Global Warming; Part 1: A Preliminary Conversation with Family Scholars," was held in the Konover Auditorium in the Dodd Center. The second part of the discussion is scheduled to be at the same location on Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, 2009.
Family Studies Alumni Society (FSAS), the Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS), Family Studies Undergraduate Committee of UConn and the American Association for Family and Consumer Sciences Connecticut Chapter sponsored the event, bringing in four speakers.
"It is simply in the nature of the members of the older generations of society to desire to leave a lasting legacy and for the older generations of today that means a positive impact on the environment," said Karl Pillemer, a gerontologist and the Director of Cornell's Institute for Translational Research on Aging.
Pillemer went on to explain that approximately a third of Americans are grandparents and therefore assume the nurturing role as such. He argued that grandparents play an integral role in educating and the younger generations how to live green and not consume as much.
"It's not about the money, it's how you spend the money … what are the value of things?" said Nancy H. Bull, associate director of the Cooperative Extension Service and a family resource specialist in reference to why older generations were more frugal and unlike the consumer generation.
According to Bull, those who lived through the Great Depression are more likely to be more green now because of their history and resistance to over consumption.
The next speaker, Kathryn Libal, an anthropologist and member of HDFS and the School of Social Works, spoke about the international ramifications of each county's carbon footprint.
"Climate change is the defining issue of human development of our generation," Libal said. "What we do today will last at least a century."
"I don't want to end the evening on a pessimistic note," said Ronald Sabatelli, the department head of HDFS. "But that's just how it is."
Sabatelli, the final speaker of the night painted a grim image of the environmental crisis. According to Sabatelli, in order for the problem to be fixed the entire American mindset has to change. Children must not be taught to merely consume and purchase to be happy, but rather find happiness in the world around them.
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