5th Annual Maine State Climate Summit: Schedule

To register: http://www.ssc.org/involved/registrationsup_mz.php?e=117.

Friday, February 8^th

4:00 pm – 5:30 pm Arrival and Sign-ins

5:30 pm – 6:00 pm Welcome and Introductions (logistics and goals for the weekend)

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm Dinner and 1^st breakout discussion – a chance to list questions and set goals for the weekend (with school group)

7:30 pm – 8:10 pm Keynote address: Maine State Senator Phil Bartlett!

8:10 pm – 8:30 pm Socializing/networking

8:30 pm - ?:00pm Festivities!

Saturday, February 9^th

8:45 am – 9:30 am Breakfast

9:30 am – 9:45 am An introduction from B.E.A.M and an overview of the day ahead

9:45 am – 11:15 am Panel Discussion #1 – an introduction to climate change and our options for mitigation

• Paul Kando – Climate Expert to be presenting “Global Warming, an Update for Maine”

• Normand Laberge PhD – Tidal Power specialist, Maine Tidal Power

• Dr. Michael Dorsey - Dartmouth Professor and climate change policy specialist, Dartmouth College

• Tom Stokes – Climate Crisis Coalition Coordinator

• Kurt Adams – Chairman, Maine Public Utilities Commission
  

• Mike Jacobs - VP of Transmission, UPC Wind

11:15 am – 11:30 am Break

11:30 am – 12:45 pm Panel Discussion #2 – much ado about climate change (the student's role)

• Jennifer Andrews – Campus Program Manager, Clean Air – Cool Planet

• Mark Orlowski – Founder, Sustainable Endowments Institute

• Sarah Lovitz – Clean Energy Project Outreach Coordinator, Natural Resource Council of Maine

• Julie Rosenbach – Environmental Coordinator, Bates College

• Maura Cowley – Campaign Director, Sierra Student Coalition

12:45 pm – 1:30 pm Lunch

1:30pm – 2:45 pm Break out into focus groups – discuss options for achieving carbon neutrality (speakers and presenters can take part in these discussions) each discussion will be facilitated by a Bates students

2:45 pm – 3:00 pm Break – picture on the puddle with a banner

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Each focus group will briefly discuss and lead a Q&A on their findings

4:00 pm – 4:30 pm Break out into school groups, prepare a profile of your campus organization

4:30 pm – 6:00 pm Campus group profiles – meetings, campaigns, initiatives, etc., what works, what doesn't work, followed by short Q&A and an opportunity to ask for suggestions

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm Dinner

7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Statewide campaign brainstorm activity

8:30 pm - ??:00 pm/am Festivities!

Sunday, February 10^th

9:00 am – 9:30 am Breakfast

9:30 am – 10:30 am Breakout session (workshops and additional presentations)

• Eco-sculpting

• Environmental Justice

• Climate Change and the Maine Coast

• Presidential Candidate Overview

• Coal and Mountaintop Removal

• Climate refugees

• Carbon Trading and Capping

• Sustainable Agriculture

10:30 am – 12:30 pm Laying the foundation for a statewide campaign

12:30 pm – 1:00 pm Closing statements

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Lunch available, open-time for ongoing discussions

The 5th Annual Maine State Climate Summit February 8-10

The Bates Energy Action Movement is proud to announce that this year's Maine State Climate Summit will be held at Bates College in Lewiston, ME. Please forward this message along to any relevant lists or potential participants at your school.

What is it?

The summit, co-sponsored by the Sierra Student Coalition, is a three-day event that unites students from high schools, colleges and universities in Maine to discuss and take action on issues pertaining to climate change, ranging from wind power to eco-art.

Although the summit is primarily concerned with climate change in Maine, it will also address National and global issues. Our goal for the weekend is threefold: to teach, to train, and to organize. Panel discussions and workshops will serve to strengthen a participant's knowledge base and resources, while networking opportunities and campaign development will set us all on the course to effective climate change action as a powerful and united body of student activists.

Who should come?

No. Experience. Necessary. We will be starting from the basics and working our way through some of the crucial and exciting issues surrounding climate change and sustainability. Come to learn, come to network, come to organize, come to debate! This summit is for students in Maine (and surrounding states) who feel strongly about taking action on climate change, our generation's most pressing challenge.

What to expect...

The weekend will consist of a keynote address, panel discussions, student workshops and statewide campaign organizing as well as great food, socializing, recreation, and entertainment. Accommodations will be provided for all registered participants. The following is a list of confirmed speakers and presenters:

Sarah Lovitz – Clean Energy Project Outreach Coordinator, Natural Resource Council of Maine
Tom Stokes – Climate Crisis Coalition Coordinator
Mark Orlowski – Founder, Sustainable Endowments Institute
Paul Kando – Climate Expert to be presenting “Global Warming, an Update for Maine”
Michele Hertz – Environmental activist and eco-sculptor
Kurt Adams – Chairman, Maine Public Utilities Commission
Julie Rosenbach – Environmental Coordinator, Bates College
Normand Laberge PhD – Tidal Power specialist, Maine Tidal Power
Dr. Michael Dorsey - Dartmouth Professor and climate change policy specialist, Dartmouth College
Jennifer Andrews – Campus Program Manager, Clean Air – Cool Planet

Stay tuned for a full schedule of the weekend!

How to register...

Here's a link to the registration page: http://www.ssc.org/involved/registrationsup_mz.php?e=117.

Everyone who plans to attend must register by January 30th.

There is a per-person registration fee on a sliding scale from $15.00 - $30.00, which will help offset the cost of food for the weekend. Registered e-mail addresses will be added to a list serve and will receive regular updates including an event schedule and more specific information on what to bring and how to prepare. If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns feel free to contact us (Mike Pickoff - mpickoff@bates.edu).

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you in February!

Love,
The Bates Energy Action Movement

B.E.A.M to host the 5th Annual Maine State Climate Summit

We love climate change conferences. In fact, the Bates Energy Action Movement was formed after attending a conference at Middlebury College on carbon neutrality. Last February we attended the 4th annual Maine state climate summit at the College of the Atlantic, and towards the end of the weekend we were all gathered in the dining hall after a long day of climate action, and Maura Cowley (northeast coordinator of the SSC) inquired as to who would be willing to host the conference the following year. Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity (literally...just hopped up and down).
Well the time has come, and the organizing has begun. The conference will be held on the weekend of February 8-10 right here on the Bates College campus. And that's only 66 days away! Here's a quick description of what the conference is all about:

The summit, co-sponsored by the Sierra Student Coalition, is a three-day event that brings together students from every college and university in Maine to discuss and take action on issues pertaining to climate change, ranging from wind power to eco-art. It will be held on the Bates College campus in Lewiston.

Although the summit is concerned, primarily, with climate change in Maine, we also hope to address issues on a national and global scale. Our goal for the weekend is to provide the students of Maine and surrounding states with the knowledge base and resources they need to contribute, effectively, to the fight against global warming.

Fun! We have an organizing team set up that meets every Thursday at 8pm in the living room of Chase House (on Frye Street). Please feel free to join us if you feel at all inspired to contribute, have great ideas for the weekend, or just want to hear what we are up to. If you've got questions or suggestions about the conference, e-mail beam@bates.edu and we will do our best to address them. We strongly encourage everyone to get involved with the organizing of this amazing summit.

B.E.A.M blog makes a comeback

Hello everyone! After a long hiatus, The Bates Energy Action Movement's web log is back with a vengeance. I'd like to remind you all that this blog is intended to be interactive, so post your comments! If you are interested in becoming an author, you can e-mail me (mpickoff@bates.edu) or Jack Murphy (jmurphy3@bates.edu) for the username and password. From now on, all of B.E.A.M's campaigns, initiatives and adventures will be posted. Our hope is that this blog will help to encourage a dialog among students, and also serve as a publicity tool for B.E.A.M!

Is anyone interested in becoming the BLOG MASTER?? We'll need someone to make sure we keep this thing updated. Think about it and let us know at the next Sunday evening gathering (every Sunday evening at 6pm in the common area of Frye Street Union). Great!

President Hansen Commits Bates to Carbon Neutrality!

So there is a slight change of plans in our letter to President Hansen, as I alluded to yesterday, and this is because it was going to ask her to sign the American College and University President's Climate Commitment....but she has just signed it!!! And not only has she signed it, she is in the leadership circle! This means that she is commited to working towards climate neutrality beyond Bates, and going to her collegues at other schools and urging them to sign on. So this is really really great news. You can see the commitment, and list of signatories, at https://webmail.bates.edu/portal/services/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.presidentsclimatecommitment.org%2Fhtml%2Fcommitment.php.

She is on board! That means that together we can really make Bates a leader in the Climate movement! Let's get ready for the Maine Climate Summit next year and get her so sign to ask Maine and US government to Step It Up!

Kudos to E.T.H.!

Governor Corzine Steps It Up!

Governor Corzine has Stepped It Up! Let's try to get more Governors to do the same!

"TRENTON - Governor Jon S. Corzine today signed an Executive Order to adopt proactive and ambitious goals for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in New Jersey . The order specifically calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, approximately a 20 percent reduction, followed by a further reduction of emissions to 80% below 2006 levels by 2050. New Jersey is one of the first states in the nation to adopt such aggressive goals.
“Today we have taken steps to preserve our planet for our children and grandchildren by adopting aggressive goals for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” Governor Corzine said. “In the absence of leadership on the federal level the burden has now fallen upon state executives and legislatures to lead the way on this issue and I’m proud that New Jersey is helping to blaze that trail.”
To reach this goal, the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will work with the Board of Public Utilities (BPU), the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and other stakeholders to evaluate methods to meet and exceed the 2020 target reductions. The DEP Commissioner will make specific recommendations to meet the targets while taking into account the economic benefits and costs of implementing these recommendations. This evaluation will be done in conjunction with the state’s Energy Master Plan, which will incorporate the new greenhouse gas reduction goal." From Governors Office Website

Maine Student to Join Together for "Step It Up 2007"

During the Maine Student Climate Summit held at College of the Atlantic this past weekend students from all the school represented agreed to join together to ask congress to Step It Up. On April 14 of this year there will be a national day of action with hundreds of events on that day where people will be demanding that Congress make a plan and commit to cutting GHG emissions 80% by 2050. The students of Maine plan to compose a join statement and have a large scale petitioning campaign targeting students, faculty, staff, presidents, departments, and clubs on Maine's college campuses. The plan is to have a public event with press in which the join statement and petitions is handing to policy makers of Maine, both state and national. If your would like to get involved or learn more about the campaign, please email jmurphy3@bates.edu and/or join the "Step It Up Maine" facebook group.