E-M:/ MSU launches 7th UN Decade Speaker series

For the seventh consecutive semester, the MSU Office of Campus Sustainability and University Committee for a Sustainable Campus (UCSC) is hosting a speaker series to recognize and support the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005-2014. Past speakers in the series have included Terry Tempest Williams, Tom Atlee, Vandana Shiva, Satish Kumar, Michael Shuman, David Korten and many other notable scholars, activists, and leaders.

This semester begins with Leo Gerard, the international president of the United Steelworkers, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, speaking on “Green Jobs: Sustaining Employment and the Environment in the 21^st Century”. His talk will be held in the Kellogg Center, Big Ten B room at 7:00pm on Tuesday February 5^th.

Mr. Gerard is the son of a union miner, and started working at Inco's nickel smelter in Sudbury, Ontario at age 18. Inspired by a lifelong commitment to economic and social justice, Gerard rose through the ranks to become the first president of the new United Steel Workers. Before being elected to his first full term by acclamation in 2001 he served in many positions within the union. Gerard also serves on the U.S. National Commission on Energy Policy and is a founding board member of the Apollo Alliance, a non-profit public policy initiative for creating good jobs in pursuit of energy independence.

Other upcoming speakers in the series include:

March 18, 2008 7;30p.m. 109 S. Kedzie, Dr. Jeffrey Nielsen “Building Democratic Communities: Education for Political Literacy”

Prof. Nielsen is a professor of philosophy, author of The Myth of Leadership(2004) and founder and director of Democracy House Project an effort to expand political leadership in communities.

Tuesday April 1, 7:30 pm, 109 S. Kedzie, Dr. Eban Goodstein, “How Today’s 20 Year Olds Will Become the Greatest Generation and Save the Planet”

Dr. Goodtein is the author of the textbook Environment and Economics, now in it’s fifth edition (2007) as well as other books and many articles in both scholarly journals as well as the New York Times, Scientific American, Time and The Economist. From 2006-2008 he has led “Focus the Nation”, a national educational initiative on global warming solutions for America, involving more than 1,000 universities, schools, and other institutions. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Michigan.

Tuesday April 15^th, 7:30 pm, 109 S. Kedzie, Carolyn Raffensperger , “Guardianship for Future Generations: Legal and Policy Frameworks”

Carolyn Raffensperger is Executive Director of the Science and Environmental Health Network and an environmental lawyer. She has been a leader in exploring the Precautionary Principle and policy frameworks for addressing our responsibility to future generations. She is the author of Precautionary Tools for Reshaping Environmental Policy published by M.I.T. Press (2006) and Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle, (1999). In addition

she writes the “Public Trust” column for the Environmental Law Institute's journal Environmental Forum.

This series is sponsored with the generous support of Residential Initiative for the Study of Environment, Sustainable Michigan Endowed Project, Land Policy Institute, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, College of Social Science, Residential College of Arts and Humanities, Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, and Community Agriculture Recreation and Resource Studies.

All events are free and open to the public

Terry Link, Director

Office of Campus Sustainability

412 Olds Hall

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI 48824

1-517-355-1751 (land-line)

1-517-432-1090 (fax)

www.ecofoot.msu.edu

One planet, One family, One future