Summit on climate to be held at COA

BAR HARBOR – As frigid weather maintains its stranglehold on the state, the phenomenon of climate change isn’t immediately palpable in this tip of the United States.

But organizers of the third annual Maine Climate Change Summit, to be held next weekend in Bar Harbor, said global warming and its environmental impact reach everyone, and any chance to discuss the topic is a good one.

“Vulnerable communities around the world are already suffering the impact of climate change,” said Juan Pablo Hoffmaister, a senior at College of the Atlantic and one of the event’s organizers.

The summit, which begins Friday, Feb. 9, and runs through Sunday, Feb. 11, was organized by COA students and members of SustainUS, a youth environmental movement. It also is sponsored by the Sierra Student Coalition and a group called Planktos.

While anyone is welcome to attend, organizers said the event is geared toward youth, who stand to inherit the effects of climate change.

“We, as youth, want to see Maine at the forefront of meaningful and effective action to stop climate change,” COA student Matt Maiorana said. “Maine is already taking some steps, and we would like to work with stakeholders to assure these steps are timely and sound.”

A landmark report released Friday by the International Panel on Climate Change is likely to be a big topic of conversation among the summit’s participants.

That report concludes will little doubt that global warming has been caused by humans and urges the U.S. and other countries to take steps to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

College of the Atlantic, a small liberal arts school that offers only one academic major – human ecology, has a long-standing reputation of fostering environmental awareness and promoting sustainability.

The summit will feature guest speakers and workshops on such topics as greenhouse gases, solar energy and biodiesel alternatives.

Keynote speaker Alison Drayton, an international climate change negotiator for the United Nations, will address participants at 7 p.m. Friday.

“Her visionary leadership and superior negotiating skills helped set the basis for international progress in addressing global warning,” COA President David Hales said of Drayton.

“She is bringing a perspective of the impact of climate change that we do not often hear,” added Hoffmaister.

Hales, who has extensive background in international environmental negotiations and who announced last October an ambitious goal to make COA the nation’s only “net-zero” campus in terms of greenhouse gases, also will speak.

Hales took over as COA president last fall, replacing Steven Katona, who retired after heading the college for 13 years.

For more information about the Maine Climate Change Summit, call 288-5350 or visit the College of the Atlantic Web site, www.coa.edu.