College to host climate 'teach-in'

The academic disciplines are diverse: physics, art, sociology, biology. But next week, they'll all be linked in a discussion of global warming at Framingham State College.

Professors have organized a campus-wide program on the topic involving 45 instructors from 15 disciplines.

They were inspired by the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and will offer multiple showings of the film throughout the week. And while organizers insist the exercise is academic and not political, one professor said they are operating with the assumption that global warming is a serious threat.

"The only outward political objective is our starting point that global warming is a real, nonfictitious problem, and it is a problem that humans have created," said Ira Silver, an assistant sociology professor who is one of three instructors on campus organizing the event. "I realize there's not 100 percent consensus on that."

Professors say the "teach-in" is notable because academic departments don't typically coordinate their lesson plans around a single topic. And organizers say they don't know of any other college campus that has dealt with global warming in the classroom in this way.

"We're always looking for opportunities to connect the concepts and theories to things that are happening in the world, things that help people feel the vitality of things we're engaged in," said Virginia E. Rutter, an assistant professor of sociology and one of the event organizers.

Rutter said she and Silver, along with assistant English professor Lisa Eck, did not anticipate the teach-in being as widespread across campus as it has become.

"We thought we'd get a few professors interested in putting this on their syllabus, and we wanted to coordinate to do it at the same time," Rutter said. "By January, we had 40 professors who had signed up to put global warming in their syllabus in the same week in April."

Global warming has been a controversial topic, whose profile has risen considerably with the Oscar-winning documentary that chronicles the efforts of former vice president and climate change crusader Al Gore.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, average global temperatures have been rising in recent years, with the two hottest years ever recorded in 1998 and 2005. Scientists warn that the rising temperatures could have devastating impacts on the earth's climate.

An intergovernmental panel on warming organized by the United Nations has found there is a greater than 90 percent chance that humans are contributing to the phenomenon by creating so-called "greenhouse gases," byproducts of burning carbon-based fuels.

The organizers at Framingham State said global warming is uniquely suited for an interdisciplinary approach, because of its scientific, political, ethical, and cultural ramifications.

Students in a ceramics course will be developing concept pieces based on their reactions to a global warming film. Government students will discuss the ongoing political debate and ramifications for public policy. Philosophy students will consider the moral and ethical considerations of how humans treat the Earth. Mathematics students will study the statistical rationale supporting global warming.

In Silver's "Sociology of the Future" course, he'll get students talking about why people have traditionally not attached a sense of urgency to dealing with global warming and why other topics have received more attention.

Rutter, who teaches "Introduction to Sociology," said she will focus on a recent report by the UN panel showing that impoverished nations, which have contributed the least to global warming, would potentially suffer the most from its consequences. She said she will ask students to answer the question, "What are reasonable burdens for people to take on?"

The week will end with a gathering of students and faculty in a school gym on April 30. Climate experts will be on hand, but organizers say the meeting will be a chance for wide-ranging discussion about the issue.

"We don't have a horse in the race about what policies make sense," Rutter said. "But we have an interest in putting it on the table so that as a community we can think about it."

John C. Drake can be reached at 508-820-4229 or jdrake@globe.com.