By Carin Skoog, Global Warming Solutions Coordinator, Fresh Energy

Honoring the Swedish heritage of Gustavus Adolphus College means more than simply coffee and cookies and incorporating the three-crowns logo. For the past four decades, it has also meant Gustavus hosts the Nobel Conference, the first ongoing education conference in the United States to have the official authorization of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. This year’s Nobel Conference is shaping up to be a one-of-a-kind, with an entire two-day schedule devoted solely to the topics of energy and global warming.

When I was a student at Gustavus, classes would be canceled in order for students and faculty to attend the conference. Of course, there were those who used the opportunity to take a day off, but in most cases I think everyone understood it was an incredible opportunity—too good to pass up. Thankfully, the Minnesota State Legislature isn’t in session in October, because this is one Nobel Conference lineup no policymaker should miss. To think little St. Peter, Minnesota will be host to Dr. James Hansen, Director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, speaks to the import of this topic both for Minnesota and for the globe.

With the exciting 2007 energy legislation still fresh on Minnesota’s books and the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group hard at work, now is the perfect time for a closer look at the latest science and most effective solutions to global warming. The bad news is, the clock is ticking and we need fast action to reduce global warming pollution now. The good news is, we are a resourceful species and have already developed the tools we need to get us there. Now we just need the political will.

I’m going to encourage my elected representatives to attend this year’s Nobel Conference, October 2-3..heck, maybe they’ll even want to carpool.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 9:39 am by Fresh Energy and is filed under Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.