The Peach Report

CHAPEL HILL (The Chapel Hill Herald, Jan. 30, 2008) — In more than 80 classrooms across UNC’s campus this week, the topic will be the same: global warming.

Professors from a range of disciplines, including organic chemistry, art history and business, will set aside lecture time today and Thursday to address how global warming relates to their fields.

The discussions are part of a nationwide teach-in called “Focus the Nation: Global Warming Solutions for America.” More than 1,000 universities, colleges and high schools are participating, including Duke University, N.C. State University and N.C. Central University.

Focus the Nation is the brainchild of Eban Goodstein, an economics professor at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore. Goodstein took a sabbatical last year to rally support for the event.

“We owe our young people a truly national day of focused conversation about global warming solutions,” Goodstein said in a statement.

Senior Jessilyn Kemp, a coordinator of the UNC Focus the Nation group, said about 25 students and staff members have been working for more than a year to organize the event. In addition to classroom discussions, the event will include panels with local political leaders, musical performances and a tour of the university’s coal-fired power plant.

“Global warming is a huge issue that’s got to be addressed now,” she said.

Tony Reevy, associate director of the university’s Institute for the Environment, said the institute provided $10,000 to support the teach-in. Seven student interns received course credit through the institute to help professors develop lesson plans, he said.

In professor Jean DeSaix’s general biology course Thursday, students will explore links between global warming and cell respiration, a natural process that produces the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

“This will be an opportunity to link a fairly abstract biological process with something that is really important in people’s environment and in the political arena,” DeSaix said.

Trude Bennett, who teaches a course on reproductive health policy in the UNC School of Public Health, said her class will be studying the effects of global warming on children’s health.

The teach-in is a good opportunity for educators and students to think about how climate change affects everything, Bennett said.

‘A serious problem’

State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, who will participate in a panel discussion with other political leaders tonight, said it is important for local governments to address global warming.

“We have a serious problem,” Kinnaird said. “It certainly behooves all of us to see what we can do to reverse the trend.”

Kemp said she hopes hundreds of students and community members will turn out for speeches, discussions and musical performances, which will run from 6 to 10 p.m. tonight and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday in the Great Hall in the Student Union.

Miquela Ingalls, a first-year biology major, said she is planning to attend the Focus the Nation events because global warming is a top issue for her.

“It’s really important for our time,” she said.

If students don’t learn about global warming on campus, they may hear about it at the bar.

The Irish pub W.B. Yeats off West Franklin Street is hosting a global warming awareness party Thursday night, said junior Kate Jenkins, a member of the Focus the Nation group.

“The idea is to raise awareness in a bar by letting people know how global warming is going to affect the production of barley and grapes,” Jenkins said. “It’s a tangible result that college students can relate with.”