FOCUS THE NATION @ WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY
What is Focus the Nation?
Focus the Nation is a major educational initiative that is coordinating teams of faculty, students and staff at over a thousand colleges, universities and high schools in the United States, to collaboratively engage in a nationwide, interdisciplinary discussion centered around the theme of "Global Warming Solutions for America". The project will culminate January 31, 2008, in the form of one-day, national symposia held simultaneously on campuses across the country.
There are two motivations for this project. The first is reflected in the urgent, recent statement by Dr. James Hansen, the top US government climate scientist. Over the next decade, critical policy decisions will be made with irreversible consequences for the future. For example, Hansen and some other scientists believe that if we do not stabilize greenhouse gas emissions soon, we may set in motion a process leading to collapse of the West Antarctic and Greenland Ice sheets, events that would raise global sea levels by over 35 feet, inundating many of the world’s major cities. This of course is just one of the myriad potential consequences of human-induced warming, with regional and global impacts ranging from hurricanes of greater intensity and duration, global water shortages, altered patterns of rainfall, drought and flood, massive forest die-back, and large-scale species extinction.
Students today face many important social, economic, and security issues. Global warming however, is unique, in that if we are to reduce the risk of large-scale, irreversible, world-wide damages, then ambitious—and potentially costly—policy solutions must be undertaken within a very compressed time frame. At this time, we owe our young people a day of national, focused, non-partisan discussion of the decisions to be made in the next ten years, decisions that will profoundly affect their future, and indeed the future of all human generations to follow.
The second motivation for this project is to explore a new model of collaborative, interdisciplinary education, on a national scale. Focus the Nation will require campus-based teams of faculty and students to draw on campus expertise across the broad range of disciplines: the natural sciences, philosophy, art, economics, history, computer science, communications, government, religion, theater, literature, psychology. Each of these disciplines has already made important contributions to our understanding of human-induced climate change, and its solutions.
Willamette University Resolution on Climate Change
"Global warming poses a serious threat to people and natural systems across the planet. Public and private policy decisions about global warming this decade will have impacts lasting for generations. To focus the nation's attention on this crucial issue, Willamette University, in conjunction with colleges, universities, and high schools across the country, will organize a symposium about "Global Warming Solutions for America" on or around January 31 2008. On that day, faculty are strongly encouraged to travel with their classes to attend scheduled programs about climate change or to discuss it with their own students. The symposium program committee will work with interested faculty to develop appropriate material for their classes, and to insure that diverse disciplines are represented in symposium panels and workshops."
Formally endorsed by the College of Liberal Arts Faculty, Willamette University, Willamette University Sustainability Council and by Willamette President M. Lee Pelton
For further information see: www.focusthenation.org