Noah Hodgetts of Newton plans to attend climate change conference

Says Hodgetts, a 2006 graduate of Waltham's Gann Academy, the New Jewish High School of Greater Boston, “This is the conference to go to for the future of climate laws. Although climate change isn’t my main focus, it is such a large part of what we deal with today and therefore essential to have a handle on what is going on.” At this, his first international conference, Hodgetts hopes to be able to speak about the importance of including sustainable transportation in future climate treaties.

“The Copenhagen Conference has the potential to be the single most important international negotiation of the last two centuries. No matter what issue one cares about most—hunger, children's health, water, poverty, energy and the economy—what happens in Copenhagen will have massive impact for good or ill ,” says COA President David Hales, who worked to get accreditation for the college at the meetings. “These students will live in the future that will be shaped by the negotiations. They believe it is essential for them to be present so that the diplomats who negotiate the treaties can never forget that their actions in December will affect the planet for centuries to come.”

Hodgetts, whose studies focus on land use policy and planning and environmental law, hopes to make a career on encouraging “smart growth” and other sustainable principles, including transportation. The 21-year-old expects the meeting to introduce him to the process of international policy and decision-making, information he hopes to utilize in his effort to encourage a resurgence of sustainable transportation, especially given the population changes expected from the impact of climate change.

With just a two-degree change in Celsius say scientists, Europeans will be dying of heatstroke and forests ravaged by fire. Stressed plants would begin to emit carbon rather than absorbing it. A third of all species could face extinction. To prevent such dire consequences, scientists say that the treaty signed in Copenhagen must require nations to stabilize global greenhouse gas emissions by 2015. Subsequently, emissions need to decline. Since the current UN treaty on climate change, commonly known as the Kyoto Protocol, expires in 2012, the treaty written in Copenhagen will be the one nations will be working under during the upcoming crucial decade.

College of the Atlantic was founded in 1969 on the premise that education should go beyond understanding the world as it is, to enabling students to actively shape its future. It has pioneered a distinctive interdisciplinary approach to undergraduate education — human ecology — that is especially well suited to developing the types of leaders needed by all sectors of society in addressing the compelling and growing human needs of our world. COA, which encourages practical, hands-on learning, has made a practice of educating students to be effective participants at the international meetings.

Donations to help Hodgetts attend the Copenhagen conference can be made by sending a check to College of the Atlantic, c/o “The Road to Copenhagen,” 105 Eden St., Bar Harbor, ME 04609. For more information, call 288-2944 ext. 350.