This past Thursday, over 1500 universities nationwide participated in the largest "teach-in" in US history. Professors and lecturers in a variety of courses took the day to focus their lessons on global warming and climate change issues. The event, initiated by an economics professor at the Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Or, is designed to be an engaging way to educate students on the importance of environmental awareness.
I think that the event is great in principle, but people should be careful to keep the issues in mind and use the focus as a means of learning rather than pompous parading. I think by now, everyone agrees that wasting energy and environmental negligence is intolerable both fiscally and socially, but it seems too often people are quick to point the finger without first identifying the problems. Dr Webber mentioned in class that the petroleum industry has very little influence on utilities- yet I'm willing to bet most people associate rising costs of electricity and high consumption with oil. The first step to action is becoming more informed- I think that the teach-in is a good step in the right direction.
Baylor and Texas A&M participated in the environmental awareness event, while UT, as far as I'm aware, did not.
edit:
As KK pointed out, Dr. Webber is discussing Climate Change on Tuesday. Also, there is a registered Focus the Nation group for the University of Texas, but there was no coverage on UT sponsored activity through local media or the Daily Texan.
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If you look at the reading assignment for Tuesday, Feb 5th Lecture - you will see that Dr. Webber is participating (just a class period later since he was out of town).
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