Critique the news story!

Hey all, if you missed the article on the 6:00 news on ABC, channel 18, follow the link (click on the title to this blog post above) to the WQOW website, the local ABC affiliate, and you can either read the story or view it online.

This would a great way to start off your (yes, all the students') comments on the blog, critiquing my first on-air television interview! Please let me know what you liked and didn't like, as it relates to what we're talking about right now! (I have a few ideas of my own too, so I won't mind...)

And while you're there, check out another short bit on a new student movement on campus (part of the Conservationists club) to build a petition campaign to eliminate coal as a fuel in the campus steam plant. This is a critical issue for the carbon footprint, and so congratulations to them and their efforts. This issue is so big and will be difficult to accomplish, despite a lot of good progress from the folks at Facilities already. So having everybody (students, staff, administration, community) on board is good, especially if we can work together toward this long-term goal that I think we can all agree would be a huge step forward for UWEC.

P.S. Here's the link to the other story...


Now, in REAL climate news, I understand that the groundhog didn't see his shadow today - what's that mean for climate policy?!?

News 18 tonight!

It looks like I'll be on the news this evening, answering questions about my response to a press release from WI Sen. Grothman (R). I just did a (surprise - hadn't even shaved!) on-camera interview with Kevin Keen from News 18, talking about carbon footprints, climate vs. weather, coal on campus and probably some other topics I can't even recall right now. Since these are the key ideas we'll be discussing in our class over the next semester, the timing was great!

(It's one thing to get up in front of a class several meters away - quite another to have a camera in your face!)

So watch for me - let me know how I did... See you on Friday!

Class Log (2/1/2010)

Today we discussed the Preface and Chapter 1 of Elizabeth Kolbert's book Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change.

We began by discussing the preface, which dealt with Kolbert's experience at the Hotel Arctic, overlooking the flow of icebergs just off the coast of Greenland. To the average American tourist, this sight is incredible. To the European or scientist, this is a scary sight. The Jakobshavn Isbræ is moving at incredible speeds. One of the many illustrations of how global climate change is affecting the environment.

From the beginning passage, the reader understands that the book has a purpose. Kolbert carefully chooses language she writes in order to set up an engaging narrative for the reader. The places and people she writes about could have been anyone from anywhere, regardless the story remains the same: we are on the brink of a turning point in human history where we are beginning to see noticeable changes. All of these different places are just snapshots of the entire story. The idea is alluded to that though humanity can easily cross the threshold, crossing back is nearly impossible. There is a parallel to be drawn to our class as well. We are going for a journey with the scientists and other people around campus to piece together the story at Eau Claire.