Robert Friedman, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College junior, is one of 18 college students nationwide set to lobby international climate treaty negotiators next month on behalf of a Sierra Club youth organization.

An environmental studies major from Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., Friedman will attend the in Copenhagen, Denmark, Dec. 7-18. Friedman is part of a delegation from the , a network of high school and college-aged environmental activists affiliated with the Sierra Club.

“I’m going to be directly lobbying representatives at all different levels, representatives of NGOs or nations,” explains Friedman, who is co-president of a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student organization that advocates clean energy policies. “I’m also going to be blogging the entire conference — hopefully live blogging and video blogging.”

He adds, “We are 18 out of more than 100 students from the U.S. going, but there’s a huge international delegation that’s organizing and really has this incredible voice. It’s amazingly inspiring to be a part of it.”

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Friedman had originally applied to attend under the aegis of a different organization, but wasn’t
accepted. “I got really down about things,” he says, “and I was like, ‘I need to be at this conference.'” So he applied to the Sierra coalition just a few days before the deadline — and was accepted.

“I got chills. It was an incredible feeling.”

The Copenhagen conference is intended to produce a treaty that will succeed the 12-year-old Kyoto Protocol as a means of curtailing global climate change by setting rules to govern the emission of greenhouse gases. Though nearly 200 nations signed and ratified the Kyoto treaty, which took effect in 2005, the United States never accepted the protocol.

In Denmark, Friedman says, “youth delegations from all around the world will get together and discuss what we want to see in this final treaty. We’ll be composing various policy memos and talking points that we’ll submit to every government present at the conference — so that’s 192 countries.

“It’s incredible that we have a voice at a United Nations conference. But our voice is incredibly important as we’re the ones who are carrying this burden going forward. So I’m praying that governments will see the light, especially the U.S.”

All manner of public demonstrations will likely roil the atmosphere around the Copenhagen talks. As one of three co-presidents of the student organization ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Energy Action Movement, Friedman is no stranger to political theater. His group, in fact, produced a flash mob-style in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ dining hall in October as part of the International Day of Climate Action organized by .

BEAM also works the policymaking angle, and has established productive relationships with Maine politicians at the state and national levels. Last spring, for instance, the organization worked with a Maine state representative to mount a letter-writing campaign in support of state legislation promoting clean energy as a job-creation measure.

“We researched the bill and ended up writing 40 letters to local papers all over the state,” Friedman says. “We spoke at the state Senate hearing on behalf of the bill because, when it comes down to it, there aren’t many jobs for young people in Maine. It’s a very relevant issue for students.”

Lindzen has researched and taught atmospheric and climate science for more than 30 years and was lead author of a chapter in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

At ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ he will attempt to show how the popular view of global warming is based on the misrepresentation of both authority and language. He will present facts and reasoning that lead him and other prominent scientists to question whether humans are having a significant effect on the climate. The rhetoric that permeates the debate on these topics will also be discussed.

Lindzen’s talk is part of a program on climate change organized by the Dean of Students office for first-year students. His visit affords a unique opportunity to learn about a less-heard view of climate change from one of the most highly respected and qualified scientists in the field of climate and atmospheric science.

Santer, an atmospheric scientist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., has two other speaking engagements at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. He will discuss the recent scientific investigations of global warming at 4 p.m. Feb. 3 in Room 204 of Carnegie Science. He will also participate in a panel discussion on the recent international agreement signed in Kyoto, Japan, to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions at 4 p.m. on Feb. 4.

Joining Santer for the panel discussion in Chase Hall Lounge will be Darren Goetze of the Union of Concerned Scientists; Elizabeth R. DeSombre, assistant professor of environmental studies and government at Colby College; and Jim Hughes, associate professor of economics at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. The public is invited to attend both events free of charge.

Santer’s unprecedented statement, “Scientific evidence now suggests a discernible human influence on global climate,” in the 1995 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, ignited scientific debate about the degree to which human beings are responsible for global climate change, including more frequent droughts, rising sea levels and a more potent El Nino effect. Santer’s conclusion also led to current geopolitical initiatives to reduce the worldwide production of greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting chemicals, which are responsible for widening holes in the ozone and an increased incidence of skin cancer and cataracts.