The nation-wide event Focus the Nation has not passed over Whitman College: It has made last week one of the biggest weeks for climate change on campus.

There are over 1,500 groups, organizations and campuses participating, with the goal of formulating solutions to combat global warming and climate change that students can take to our representatives in the government.

At Whitman the event will run throughout the week, rather than span a single day, as it will at other campuses.

“The idea [of focus the nation] is a national teach-in day.   A lot of schools are canceling classes [on Jan. 31] and having a kind of symposium-like setup, with events going on all through the day and different speakers from all through the school.   This was what we initially wanted to do, but we decided this [week-long setup] would work better for our school’s setup,” said sophomore and event co-organizer Katie Rouse. At Whitman talks were at lunch and in the evening, Monday through today.

The event’s keynote speaker, Christine Ervin, will speak tonight in Maxey at 7 p.m. on “Focusing the Nation: It’s Crunch Time.” Ervin was the assistant secretary of energy under Clinton and is the former president and CEO of the Green Buildings Council.   A panel will follow her talk.

“We’ve gotten together the presidents from Whitman, Walla Walla Community College and Walla Walla University, and all three of them will be getting together to do a public panel to discuss the roles of colleges and university in addressing and combating climate change,”   said Rouse.

To Rouse and fellow organizer, sophomore Megan Bush, the president’s panel is especially exciting.

“Its huge to be able to get all three presidents in Walla Walla at the same time to actually sit down and talk about climate change,” said Rouse.

Bush agreed.   “Its never been done before.   George Bridges said it wasn’t possible,” she said.

Tonight’s events will be a culmination of talks that have been occurring all week both in the evenings and at lunch by professors and staff.

“Professors were incredibly receptive to the idea [of Focus the Nation].   We started talking to them months ago and we actually got more responses than we had space available.   Departments: I know biology as well as the sociology: talked within their areas and came up with a plan about what they were going to talk about.,” said Bush.

The founder of Focus the Nation is Evan Goodstein, a professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore.
The program is made up of several parts, including a webcast that occurred on Jan. 30, featuring Stanford climate scientist Stephan Schneider, a teach-in in on Jan. 31, a call for senators and government representatives to meet with the student bodies that participate in the teach-in and a poll on the Focus the Nation Web site about which climate change initiative congress should pursue.   In the poll, participants are asked to pare 10 popular environmental initiatives down to five.

“I’m excited to hear the dialogues of this week and vote after I’m a little more educated and aware of what I think.   Hopefully it will create more of an awareness,” said Bush.