MWCC News & Events: What's Up at the Mount

MWCC's weekly e-newsletter

Friday, April 7, 2006

Renewable Energy Focus of First Annual Project Earth event at MWCC

By Janice Battista

Congressman John Olver

Two of the nation’s foremost experts on renewable energy, U.S. Congressman John Olver, co-chair of the House Climate Change Caucus, and Alan Nogee of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Clean Energy Program, will lead a discussion on renewable energy and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions on Monday, April 10 in the north cafeteria on the college’s Gardner campus. The talk, part of the college’s What’s Next Speaker Series, will take place at 5:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

The talk is part of the MWCC’s first annual Project Earth event, which celebrates Earth Day 2006. Other activities taking place include the sale of energy-conserving Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) bulbs at a nominal cost, and a tour of the college’s Biomass plant by area students to learn about renewable energy sources.

A widely respected authority on renewable energy, Nogee has 20 years of experience as an energy analyst and advocate. He has testified on environmental issues and electricity restructuring before legislatures and regulatory agencies in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and New Jersey. He serves on the national Green Power Board, which oversees the Green-e certification process, and on the board of directors of the Renewable Energy Policy Project. Prior to joining the UCS in 1994, he directed the energy program of the Massachusetts Public Interest Research group and worked as an energy analyst with the Environmental Action Foundation in Washington, D.C. He has published numerous articles and reports, including Powerful Opportunity: Making Renewable Electricity the Standard, and Powerful Solutions: Seven Ways to Switch America to Renewable Energy.

Nogee said he will address “the enormous impact that our energy use has on our environment” as well as ways to help prevent the most serious consequences of global warming by using cleaner energy in homes and businesses, and through government action.

Alan Nogee of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Clean Energy Program

“There’s a strong, global, scientific consensus that human action, through the emissions of greenhouse gases, is a primary contributor to global warming,” Nogee explained. “That’s not to say there are no natural causes, but natural causes are not sufficient to explain the warming that we’ve already seen and that is forecast by a dozen climate models to become even more serious over time.”

“We strongly encourage people to buy the most efficient appliances and vehicles that they can when it’s time to replace those products,” he said. “There’s a range of energy efficient automobiles, furnaces, air conditioners and other products, right down to the light bulb, where enormous amounts of energy can be saved. People can also look to buy renewable energy from their electricity suppliers, either directly through their utility companies or from a growing number of companies that sell renewable energy certificates, sometimes known as green tags, which help renewable energy project developers get their projects off the ground.”

During the evening presentation, The Green Society, a student environmental club, will be selling the CFL bulbs at a discounted cost of 2 for $1, courtesy of a conservation awareness program of National Grid. A CFL bulb uses about one quarter of the electricity of a standard, incandescent light bulb, and gives the same amount of light as a 100 watt incandescent bulb.

Tom Montagno, MWCC associate professor of biology and advisor to The Green Society, said the day’s events will help educate students and the public about ways to conserve energy and reduce emissions that are harmful to the environment. “There’s no denying that the Earth’s temperatures are increasing, surface temperatures and ocean temperatures,” Montagno said.

“We see evidence of it every day. The quickest, easiest thing that people can do is to replace their incandescent bulbs with CFL bulbs, which use 75 percent less energy. I think the program will give students information about renewable energy, and we certainly here at the Mount are a primary example of a public institution that is making a significant difference. We’ve reduced our CO2 emissions over 18 percent by replacing our electrical heat with Biomass heat. It’s very important for students to be aware of our Biomass plant, and that all the heat we get in the wintertime comes from woodchips.”

 

Author James Loewen to Reveal “Lies My Teacher Told Me”

Author and educator James Loewen will present the talk “Lies My Teacher Told Me About the Turn of the Century,” on Tuesday, April 11 at 7 p.m. in the MWCC Theatre.

James Loewen

Sponsored by MWCC, Fitchburg Public Schools, and Fitchburg State College, the free lecture is presented by the Teaching American History Program, a professional development program for middle and high school American history teachers funded by a $1 million U.S. Department of Education grant.

Loewen spent two years at the Smithsonian Institution surveying 12 leading high school textbooks of American history. He found an embarrassing blend of bland optimism, blind nationalism, and plain misinformation. In response, he wrote “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong,” in part a telling critique of existing textbooks, but also a gripping retelling of American history as it should, and could, be taught.

Loewen taught race relations for 20 years at the University of Vermont. Previously, he taught at predominantly black Tougaloo College in Mississippi. He now lives in Washington, D.C. and is continuing his research on how Americans remember their past.
His book, “Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers and Monuments Get Wrong,” came out in 1999. His other books include the co-authored “Mississippi: Conflict and Change,” which won the Lillian Smith Award for Best Southern Nonfiction. It was rejected for public school text use by the state of Mississippi, leading to a groundbreaking First Amendment lawsuit.

Loewen’s new book, “Sundown Towns,” tells how thousands of communities in America excluded African, Chinese, Jewish, or Native Americans between 1890 and the 1970s, and how some still do.

Loewen attended Carleton College and holds a Ph.D in sociology from Harvard University.