1/8/08

Colleges Invite Community To Help 'Focus The Nation' On Climate Change

CANTON - St. Lawrence County's four colleges have joined forces to Focus the Nation on global warming, and invite the community to help find solutions.

Focus the Nation includes over 1,300 colleges and universities across the country in a teach-in aimed at raising awareness and changing behaviors regarding climate change. Community participation is welcome, especially to the North Country culminating event, a forum on Friday, February 1, from 7 to 10 p.m. in Gulick Theatre at St. Lawrence University, with participation from SUNY Canton, SUNY Potsdam, Clarkson University and St. Lawrence faculty, students, staff and alumni. Elected officials who represent the area on the local, regional, state and federal levels have been invited to the discussion.

On Thursday, January 31, and Friday, February 1, all four colleges will hold their own teach-ins on aspects of global warming and on the identification and creation of local energy solutions. The community forum will bring together the participants of the teach-ins, to share reports on discussions; pose questions to elected officials; and propose possible actions that colleges, citizens and government, all working together, may take.

Detailed schedules for the teach-ins will be available on each institution's campus and Web site, as they are developed. The St. Lawrence University Green Pages (www.stlawu.edu/green/focus-the-nation) is a central resource for information.

Focus the Nation is slated to be the largest teach-in in U.S. history. For more information about the Focus the Nation event across the country, visit the Web site www.focusthenation.org.

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