2008 Woodie Awards
Students engage Pawlenty on climate change, MN policy
By: Daniel Kerwin, Sports Editor
Issue date: 3/7/08 Section: News
Students came from across Minnesota to meet with Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty at the University of St. Thomas on Monday at the Youth Forum on Global Warming Solutions. The event was organized by Will Steger, an evironmental activist and polar explorer, and the Trans-campus Energy Action Movement Minnesota as a chance for Minnesota students to share their ideas for combating global warming with the governor.
Pawlenty shared the stage with student environmental leaders from throughout the state. Erick Boustead of the University of Minnesota was up front about the student presence.
"To quote the Wu-Tang Clan, we're here to bring the ruckus," Boustead announced to the audience.
After Steger and Pawlenty gave opening remarks, a panel of six student leaders including Madeline Kovacs '08 talked about different student initiatives that being taken to address global warming. Students talked about the recent events such as the National Campus Energy Challenge and Focus the Nation, as well as individual campus projects such as the goal of the University of Minnesota-Morris to provide 100 percent of campus energy through wind power within a year and a half.
"I don't really know how receptive [Pawlenty] was or how much he really knew about the youth movement," Matt Kazinka '11 said. "Hopefully if nothing else we came to recognize each other as forces."
The main body of the event was a question and answer session paneled by Pawlenty, Steger, Boustead and Timothy Den Herder-Thomas '09.
There was basic agreement all around towards the seriousness of the problem and the imminent need for action, but there were some sticking points as to the specific actions that should be taken.
Pawlenty drew attention to Minnesota's goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, among the most ambitious in the nation, and also stressed the need to invest in a new green sector, creating jobs in renewable energy around the state while also reducing dependence on foreign sources of energy production such as oil.
Pawlenty shared the stage with student environmental leaders from throughout the state. Erick Boustead of the University of Minnesota was up front about the student presence.
"To quote the Wu-Tang Clan, we're here to bring the ruckus," Boustead announced to the audience.
After Steger and Pawlenty gave opening remarks, a panel of six student leaders including Madeline Kovacs '08 talked about different student initiatives that being taken to address global warming. Students talked about the recent events such as the National Campus Energy Challenge and Focus the Nation, as well as individual campus projects such as the goal of the University of Minnesota-Morris to provide 100 percent of campus energy through wind power within a year and a half.
"I don't really know how receptive [Pawlenty] was or how much he really knew about the youth movement," Matt Kazinka '11 said. "Hopefully if nothing else we came to recognize each other as forces."
The main body of the event was a question and answer session paneled by Pawlenty, Steger, Boustead and Timothy Den Herder-Thomas '09.
There was basic agreement all around towards the seriousness of the problem and the imminent need for action, but there were some sticking points as to the specific actions that should be taken.
Pawlenty drew attention to Minnesota's goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, among the most ambitious in the nation, and also stressed the need to invest in a new green sector, creating jobs in renewable energy around the state while also reducing dependence on foreign sources of energy production such as oil.
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