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Online Exclusive!!! Symposium addresses controversial environmental issues
Alex Zobel
Issue date: 4/24/07 Section: News
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Energy Futures for Texas: Local and Global Perspectives, a symposium organized jointly by TCU and the University of Oxford that addressed controversial environmental issues and the necessity of the Texas and the U.S. to be more environmentally responsible, was held yesterday at the Fort Worth Hilton.
The daylong symposium was organized primarily by 14 environmental science graduate and undergraduate students- 12 of which attended a two-week lecture series at the University of Oxford that addressed climate change issues from a European perspective.
TCU senior Bethanne Edwards, one of the 12 students who traveled to the lecture series, said yesterday's symposium was intended to provoke conversation about energy usage and climate change on both the local and global level.
"The goals of this were to start a dialogue between all these different players in the energy game," Edwards said. "We're trying to get people, not only in academia but business and political leaders, thinking about what our goals are and what we can do in the future with energy."
Along with the 140 people in attendance there was a panel of 13 speakers including TCU Provost Nowell Donovan, representatives from a variety of traditional and alternative energy providers, a medical doctor, a lawyer, an architect, a physicist and a number of university professors that have done research on environmental issues.
Michael Slattery, director TCU's Institute for Environmental Studies and TCU geology professor, said the purpose of the symposium was to engage in a dialogue about "complex, difficult and certainly controversial environmental issues."
More than a year ago, Slattery was awarded a Vision In Action grant that afforded the 12 students to travel to England. He also acted as moderator of the symposium.
He said having the symposium in Texas was important because serious discussion about environmental issues usually occurs on "the coasts."
"When we think of environmental issues we tend to think of them being a West-Coast-East-Coast thing," Slattery said. "It's the Ivy Leagues on the East Coast in New England states and the Stanfords and Berkleys on the West Coast that take the lead on such things. I just think: why not Texas?"
The daylong symposium was organized primarily by 14 environmental science graduate and undergraduate students- 12 of which attended a two-week lecture series at the University of Oxford that addressed climate change issues from a European perspective.
TCU senior Bethanne Edwards, one of the 12 students who traveled to the lecture series, said yesterday's symposium was intended to provoke conversation about energy usage and climate change on both the local and global level.
"The goals of this were to start a dialogue between all these different players in the energy game," Edwards said. "We're trying to get people, not only in academia but business and political leaders, thinking about what our goals are and what we can do in the future with energy."
Along with the 140 people in attendance there was a panel of 13 speakers including TCU Provost Nowell Donovan, representatives from a variety of traditional and alternative energy providers, a medical doctor, a lawyer, an architect, a physicist and a number of university professors that have done research on environmental issues.
Michael Slattery, director TCU's Institute for Environmental Studies and TCU geology professor, said the purpose of the symposium was to engage in a dialogue about "complex, difficult and certainly controversial environmental issues."
More than a year ago, Slattery was awarded a Vision In Action grant that afforded the 12 students to travel to England. He also acted as moderator of the symposium.
He said having the symposium in Texas was important because serious discussion about environmental issues usually occurs on "the coasts."
"When we think of environmental issues we tend to think of them being a West-Coast-East-Coast thing," Slattery said. "It's the Ivy Leagues on the East Coast in New England states and the Stanfords and Berkleys on the West Coast that take the lead on such things. I just think: why not Texas?"
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