MacCARES News Article

College Students Converge for Clean Energy Conference

Author: Nick Grube

Prospects of a clean energy future will bring college students from throughout the Midwest to the University of Wisconsin-Madison over the weekend.

The students will partake in the first-ever Midwest Student Clean Energy Conference, starting Friday and ending Sunday afternoon, to learn about energy issues and the threats of global warming due to the rampant consumption of fossil fuels. As of Wednesday, 230 people had registered for the free event, which is at the Humanities Building on the UW-Madison campus.

The conference is related to the Campus Climate Challenge, a competition among 500 colleges in the United States and Canada to slow the effects of global warming by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2050.

A plethora of environmental advocates and grassroots organizers from various backgrounds will become advisors for the students on how they can create changes in their local communities through their own energy efficiency campaigns. They will teach them such techniques as attracting media attention, event planning, recruiting and facilitating meetings.

"The focus is on actual action that people can take to produce tangible results," said Rick La Torra, the lead organizer for the conference who is also the local campus organizer for the Wisconsin environmental and consumer advocacy group WISPIRG.

He said it is this focus on action that makes the conference different from others that simply teach attendees about environmental issues and do not give them the tools they need to create change.

"We really wanted something big to come out of the Midwest," he said.

As part of the event, participants will perform their own community action in Madison by going door-to-door to speak with residents about coal-fired power plants and the harm they do to the environment, such as emitting greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and increasing mercury levels in lakes.

La Torra said this is an especially big issue in the Midwest, where 75 percent of electricity comes from coal-fired plants, such as Madison Gas and Electric's Blount Street plant.

Energy Action Coalition, Student PIRGs, Sierra Student Coalition, Apollo Alliance and Global Exchange are sponsoring this weekend's event.

For more information, go to www.energyaction.net/midwest.