 "Focus on the Nation," climate change awareness event at the School of Law on January 31, 2008.
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On January 31, 2008, thousands of people gathered at universities across the country to participate in a national teach-in called “Focus the Nation.” The University of Maryland School of Law hosted a regional Focus the Nation teach-in, and approximately 100 students, educators, policymakers, activists, and community members gathered at the law school to learn more about climate change and policy solutions that are being considered or have already been implemented. The teach-in was organized by the Maryland Environmental Law Society, a student organization at the law school.
Many members of Maryland’s environmental community participated on the Focus the Nation panel, including the directors of national and statewide environmental advocacy organizations and Shari Wilson, Maryland’s Secretary of the Environment. Secretary Wilson delivered a keynote address in which she discussed the landscape of global warming at the state and federal level. She noted that Maryland is the “third or fourth most vulnerable state to sea level rise because of its topography.” As a result, Wilson said, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) is attempting to significantly reduce the state’s production of greenhouse gases, a major cause of climate change. She said that part of this reduction effort would involve tightening the regulations on new-vehicle emissions standards.
Last month, however, the Environmental Protection Agency denied Maryland and 16 other states the right to set their own standards for carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. All 17 states have since filed a lawsuit against the federal government, Wilson said.
Tad Aburn, a Focus the Nation panelist and the Director of Air and Radiation Management for MDE, said that taking part in a major energy efficiency initiative was “one of the key things we need to push to solve our climate change issues.” He explained that preliminary data shows that 38 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in Maryland come from electricity consumption, and 32 percent from transportation. “One of the challenges is to not only get a reduction in these numbers, but also change the growth curve,” he stated.
In order to change people’s habits, Maryland needs better transit and smarter growth, said Brad Heavner, another Focus the Nation panelist and the State Director of Environment Maryland, an environmental advocacy organization. “Smarter growth means building housing where there are jobs” so that people drive less, he said. An audience member agreed with his proposal for better transit, commenting that she took public transportation to get to the teach-in, and it took her twice the time it would have taken her to drive to the event in her car.
Despite some of the grim statistics provided by the Focus the Nation panelists, many students left the event with a sense of positivity. “Attending Focus the Nation enabled me to better understand what’s being done here in Maryland and across the U.S. to achieve a solution to global warming,” said Stacey Cole, a second-year law student. “As law students, we certainly have the tools to work towards reaching a solution, and I was honored to take part in a dialogue about this.” Lucy Hirsch, a second-year law student commented, “[This] was truly a community event…I hope the law school will continue to have other events that connect the school community with the larger Baltimore community.”
“The goal was to get people to see themselves not only as part of the problem, but part of the solution,” said Patience Bosley-Burke, a student co-organizer of the event. “The conference was set out to be a call to action, not a doomsday declaration, and I think we achieved just that.”
2008 Woodie Awards
