Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society for the 21st century. Created by global civil society, endorsed by thousands of organizations and institutions, the Charter is not only a call to action, but a motivating force inspiring change the world over.
Oshkosh has been a national leader in the Earth Charter movement, highlighted by the annual October Earth Charter Summit. Below you will find the schedule of events for the 2008 Summit, scheduled October 11 - October 16.
All events are FREE* and open to EVERYONE (on-campus, the Oshkosh community, and beyond). No registration is required; just come! *For this event only! The Thursday banquet is open to all, but (free) tickets will be required. There will be a suggested donation at the door (watch this space for more details).
Parking on Saturday is open in all campus lots (except handicapped-only, reserved stalls, and meters); Monday through Thursday, from 4:00-midnight, lots 34 (Elmwood), 15 (Algoma), and 13 (tennis courts) will be "cleared." They will not be empty, but they will be available to the public without a permit. (
campus map). LOCATION OF EVENTS is (unless otherwise noted):UW Oshkosh Reeve Memorial Union Ballroom, 2nd floor, #227
SUMMIT EVENTSSATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2008,
International Year of Planet Earth8:00 am - Registration for the Roseanne Hoefel Run/Walk for Diversity;
9:00 am - Walk starts at the UWO Student Recreation & Wellness Center (
details)
10:00 am - Alexander Likhotal (President and CEO, Green Cross International; advisor to Mikhail Gorbachev), "Planet Off-Course: Lacking Resources or Missing Vision?"
10:20 am - Bill Becker (University of Colorado, Director of Presidential Climate Action Project), "Day One Plan for New President"
10:40 am - Kim Lundgren (Services Director ICLEI-US), "What Local Governments Are Doing and Can Do to Address Climate Change"
11:45 am - Global Round-Robin Webcast to 28 Cities in USA and abroad
11:47 am - "Round Robin" - Oshkosh Mayor Frank Tower, followed by lunch (no charge) and presentation by Steve Arndt, UWO Director of Facilities Management, on the llatest news from the project to "green" UW Oshkosh.
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MONDAY, OCTOBER 13 - All events held in Reeve Union Ballroom, rm 227 unless otherwise noted.
5:30-6:30 pm - Dani Stolley: The "Greening" of the City of Oshkosh: An Update on Progress to Date. Dani Stolley is the current chair of the Energy & Environment Advisory Board for the City of Oshkosh. During the 2007 Earth Charter Community Summit, Oshkosh Mayor Frank Tower signed onto the US Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement, and in doing so, re-populated the city's Energy & Environment Advisory Board. Come hear how Oshkosh is faring one year after the signing of this historic climate protection agreement, and find out how you too can get involved!
Panel participants will be Dani Stolley, Chair of the E&E Advisory Board; Ron Hardy, Co-Chair; Jessica King, Oshkosh Common Councilor; Justin Mitchell, Chair of the Community Education and Outreach subcommittee; and Catherine Neiswender, UW-Extension. The panel discussion will be facilitated and moderated by Oshkosh Common Councilor, Tony Palmeri.
6:30 pm - reception with Susan Loomans
7:00-8:30 pm - Susan Loomans: "Global Warming Challenges and Solutions" Susan (Sue) Loomans is a Climatologist and Environmental Scientist who has studied cliimate change in places ranging from the Midwest to as far away as Antarctica. Sue is employed for The Wisconsin Green Building Alliance, a Milwaukee-based non profit organization that promotes sustainable building practices across the state.
In 2007 Sue was trained by former Vice-President and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore as a presenter for “The Climate Project,” a slide presentation based on the material from the award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” She now delivers presentation on global warming to a variety of audiences, highlighting the global challenges of this alarming phenomena, and strategies we can implement to meet them.
Presentation Description“Global Warming Challenges and Solutions”
Melting arctic ice, droughts in the desert southwest, record-breaking floods, tornadoes in January. These are some of the headlines we read about each day. But what do they mean? Are we witnessing natural fluctuations in our earth’s climate or a human-induced tragedy in the making?
This presentation will investigate the science behind global warming, and how our earth systems respond to atmospheric changes. We’ll look for real evidence that global warming is occurring and that it is caused by human activity. We’ll see what the future holds for our world, nation and state if climate change is not addressed. And, most importantly, we’ll learn about real solutions that exist today. Join this visually stimulating and thought-provoking journey into the most important issue facing our planet.
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14 - All events held in Reeve Union Ballroom, rm 227 unless otherwise noted.
12:00-1:00 pm - Community Garden at UW Oshkosh, Reeve Union 221 Come learn about the garden and how you can getyour hands dirty and build community. Bring your lunch. For more information, contact Damion Drover at
gardens@uwosh.edu.
6:30 pm - reception with Andrew Rowan
7:00-8:30 pm - Andrew Rowan: Beastly Attitudes:What we do to Animals and why and how the Earth Charter could help improve Human-Animal Interactions. The Earth Charter sets out a framework for how humans should interact with each other and with the world on which we depend for life itself.
The Earth Charter is organized into sixteen general headings. Of these, nine address the need for us to nurture the environment and the other beings who share this world but Headings Two (care for the community of life), Seven (adopt patterns of production, consumption and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative capacities) and Fifteen (treat all living beings with respect and consideration) refer specifically or obliquely to how we interact with animals.
This talk will provide a broad overview of human attitudes and behavior towards animals and suggest ways in which we need to change current practices and trends. It will also reflect on how humans need other animals to enrich both the physical and spiritual world we inhabit.
Andrew Rowan is the Executive Vice President of Operations and CEO, Humane Society International in Washington, DC. He is also an adjunct Professor at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, Senior Fellow at Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy, and a faculty member for the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. For more information about Dr. Rowan,
visit this web site. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15 - All events held in Reeve Union Ballroom, rm 227 unless otherwise noted.
12:00-1:00 pm - Winnebago Project: Sustainability in the Curriculum. Reeve Union 207. Interested in influsing sustainability in a course? Want to hear what others are doing in their courses? This the first "brown bag" lunch discussion on sustainability in the curriculum, which will take place the third Wednesday of each month. For more information, contact David Barnhill,
barnhill@uwosh.edu.
6:30 pm - reception with Stephanie Elizondo Griest
7:00-8:30 pm - Stephanie Elizondo Griest: "Out of the Barrio" In this high-energy motivational speech, Stephanie Elizondo Griest describes her 'escape' from South Texas to become a globe-trotting foreign correspondent, human rights activist, and author -- and how she combated racial gender, and cultural stereotypes along the way.
Stephanie Elizondo Griest has mingled with the Russian Mafia, polished Chinese propaganda, and belly danced with Cuban rumba queens. These adventures inspired her award-winning memoirs "Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana"; "Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines"; and the guidebook "100 Places Every Woman Should Go".
As a national correspondent for The Odyssey, she once drove 45,000 miles across America in a Honda Hatchback named Bertha. She has won a Hodder Fellowship to Princeton, a Richard Margolis Award for Social Justice Reporting, and a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Gold Prize.
Visit her web site.
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16 - All events held in Reeve Union Ballroom, rm 227 unless otherwise noted.
1:20-2:50 pm - Green Career Panel, Reeve Union 201. Would you like a career in the environment? Come hear from those in the firld about what careers there are and how you can get into them. For more information, Contact Jim Feldman,
mailto:feldmanj@uwosh.edu.
For this event only! The banquet is open to all, but (free) tickets will be required. There will be a suggested donation at the door (watch this space for more details).
6:30 pm - Earth Charter Oshkosh Banquet and Awards. Speaker: Christine Bader: "The Sustainability of Globalization: Business and Human Rights"
Christine Bader is advisor to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for business and human rights. She is on the secondment to that position from BP plc, the energy company that she has worked for since 1999 in Indonesia, China, and the U.K.
Christine will speak about the current debate over business's role with respect to human rights, including industries ranging from mining to internet and financial services,a s well as her personal experience managing human rights impacts around two of BP's largest projects.
Christine has also served as a corps member with City Year, the AmeriCorps program; a Teaching Fellow in Community Service at Phillips Academy in Andover; and a special assistant in the New York City Mayor's Office. Christine has a B.A. from Amherst College and an M.B.A. from Yale University, and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. To view more information about Ms. Bader,
visit this web site.
In 2006, Earth Charter Oshkosh partnered with Stuart's Landscaping for a ceremonial tree planting at Webster Stanley Elementary School, with help from the school's Garden Club.
