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Students to share experiences from global warming summit

By Kari VanDerVeen
February 7, 2008

St. Olaf College student Kate Tecku '10 had no idea how big the movement to fight global climate change had become until she found herself alongside thousands of young people from across the country who gathered at Capitol Hill last fall to raise awareness about the issue.

PowershiftLarge
Nine Oles joined more than 6,000 high school and college students at Powershift 2007, the largest national youth summit on global climate change to date. They will share their experiences and the lessons they learned during a seminar on Wednesday, Feb. 13 from 7-9 p.m. in Buntrock Commons' Viking Theater. The event is free and open to the public.

The students' participation in the summit, which was held for three days at the University of Maryland in College Park, Md., served as a launching point for a number of events focusing on global climate change that will be held at St. Olaf this year.

In January, St. Olaf joined colleges across the nation in holding a teach-in on global warming. As a follow-up to that event, students from St. Olaf, Macalester College and the University of Minnesota are organizing the National Campus Energy Challenge (NCEC) -- a monthlong energy-saving competition among schools across the United States that is based on last year's "Campus Wars" in Minnesota -- in February.

"College students have the potential to lead the nation in climate change solutions," says Cameron Field '10. "We have a powerful influence on other institutions and hope to lead by example."

Making an impact
Students honed those leadership skills during Powershift, which featured workshops as well as informational panels on a variety of topics ranging from climate legislation and environmental justice issues to media presence and communication skills.

Several keynote speakers, including political activist Ralph Nader and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, empowered and united youth leaders from across the U.S. to fight the ever-pressing challenge of global warming.

St. Olaf students Christian Balzer '08, Karrin Pearson '08, Lisa Foster '09, Cameron Field '10, Emma Harness '10, Kate Tecku '10, Rebecca Carlson '11 and Ann Raiho '11 will speak about global climate change issues at the upcoming seminar. In addition to the Oles who attended Powershift, more than 60 students from Macalester College, Carleton College, Winona State University, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, the University of Minnesota-Duluth and the University of Minnesota-Morris also participated in the summit.

During a lobby session on Capitol Hill, the 70-member Minnesota crew attended a congressional hearing on global warming and energy independence. They met with Minnesota's senators, Democrat Amy Klobuchar and Republican Norm Coleman, and urged them to support the 1Sky campaign, which calls for reducing energy consumption by 20 percent by 2015 and carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

For more information on how to get involved in environmental activities on the Hill, send an e-mail to ecleaders0708@stolaf.edu.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.