Daily Skiff

A nationwide group helping to educate people about the effects of global warming is facilitating a discussion about the isssue Thursday, said a co-organizer of the event.

The event, hosted by Focus the Nation, will be a brown bag lunch open to anyone who is concerned about global warming.

Ellen Schwaller, co-organizer and senior environmental science major, said the event will be a teach-in, which is a prolonged period of lectures or speeches conducted by members of the faculty and invited guests as a social protest technique.

Schwaller said the event's main focus is getting people to come. Once people get there, she said, they will realize there are others around campus who are concerned about the issue.

"The event itself is focused on raising awareness about global warming by brainstorming and figuring out things we can do about it," Schwaller said.

Rob Seidel, junior radio-TV-film major, said he plans to attend the event because he thinks it is something that has potential to make a difference. If enough people get together for one purpose, he said, something might be done instead of one person acting alone.

Laura Westwood, Focus the Nation event organizer for Texas, said the idea is to start the largest teach-in in U.S. history.

There will be more than 1,600 schools and universities taking part in the teach-in Thursday, Westwood said. Universities such as the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Baylor University and Texas State University are a few of the schools involved in Texas.

"Our goal is to have one day where over one million people are going to be totally focused on global warming solutions," Westwood said.

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