Mines Climate Action Days on tap for April 19, 20

GOLDEN, Colo., April 6, 2007 – The Colorado School of Mines Sustainability Committee will present Climate Action Days April 19 and 20 in an effort to bring awareness to global climate change.

The event also aims to shine a light on Mines students who are learning the skills necessary to implement new and evolving technologies.

J. Thomas McKinnon, chemical engineering professor and event organizer, said, “The engineers and scientists we are training today will be the innovators and problem-solvers who will be most active in addressing global climate change tomorrow.”

Climate Action Days kicks off at 7 p.m. April 19 with “The Future of Planet Earth and its Inhabitants: Our Assessment of the Climate Problem and Possible Solutions,” a keynote address by Tom Killeen, director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and Tom Plant, director of the Colorado Governor's Office of Energy Management and Conservation (OEMC). The address will be held in Bunker Auditorium in the Green Center, 924 16th St., on the Mines campus.

On April 20, a climate symposium featuring speakers from Mines, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the University of Colorado, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NCAR, will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Petroleum Hall in the Green Center. A technical and policy poster session will be presented all day in the Green Center foyer.

Activities, demonstrations and games will take place all day on Kafadar Commons, located adjacent to the Green Center . Highlights include biodiesel displays, an 8-foot scale model wind turbine, a game of “globo-ball” (a cross between soccer and professional wrestling in which a team of four attempts to save the Earth) and the “Climate Bowl,” an elimination tournament of wits featuring climate-themed questions. At 4 p.m. the Mines Earth Works student organization will kick off its traditional Earth Day celebration featuring live music, food and beverages.

For more information and a complete schedule of events, go to www.climateactiondays.mines.edu.

As a precursor to the event, An Inconvenient Truth will be shown at 6:30 p.m. April 12 in Coolbaugh Hall, Room 209.

Click on the following links for more information about the April 19 kickoff keynote address and the April 20 Climate Symposium.