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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2005)
Earth Day event honors University professor's life The John H. Baldwin Film and Lecture Series took place on Saturday during the community celebration BY EVA SYLWESTER NEWS REPORTER As bands played outside the Eugene Water and Electric Board building Sat urday afternoon as part of Earth Day Celebration 2005, inside, the commu nity celebrated the life of a University professor with the John H. Baldwin Film and Lecture Series. Baldwin, a professor in the Depart ment of Planning, Public Policy and Management, was the founding direc tor of the University’s Environmental Studies Program and Institute for a Sustainable Environment. He died March 7. EWEB community education coor dinator John Femal said this was the sixth year Eugene has had an Earth Day celebration downtown. The idea for a film and lecture series at the cele bration had been discussed in previ ous years, but the celebration’s former venue couldn’t accommodate it. When EWEB was chosen as the lo cation for this year’s celebration, the Earth Day Eugene Steering Commit tee began organizing a film and lec ture series. Baldwin died in the mid dle of the process, and Femal said the committee chose to dedicate the se ries to Baldwin because of his “won derful work.” “He was just a very active person who embodied a lot of what we were trying to get across,” Femal said. University senior Shaun Cook, who volunteered at the conference, knew Baldwin through PPPM classes. “He had this way of making you see the correlation between your actions and the way the world is affected,” Cook said, emphasizing that Bald win’s aim was not a guilt trip but a call to action. “Don’t philosophize, don’t theorize, get out there and do it,” Cook said. “Actions speak louder than words, and that’s how John lived his life. ” Speakers at the event described ways people could change their lifestyles in order to inflict less harm on the environment. Robert Bolman, founding director of Maitreya EcoVillage in west Eu gene, a community dedicated to sus tainability, spoke about intentional communities and sustainable develop ment. He said as the prevalence of sustainable communities rises, people will flock to them. “I think a lot of people would hap pily not own cars ... if they could live in a park,” Bolman said. Lane Community College instruc tors Sandy Aldridge and Dale Lugen behl discussed problems of the ecolog ical sustainability of the American diet, especially the immense amount of water used in the production of meat. Aldridge and Lugenbehl said they live on a farm outside Eugene and grow their own organic food. “Most of our eating is habitual, and just as we learned that way, we can unlearn and learn a different way,” Aldridge said. Bob Doppelt, director of Resource Innovations at the University’s Insti tute for a Sustainable Environment, spoke on global warming. “The science of abrupt climate change is virtually unchallenged in scientific circles and the rest of the world,” Doppelt said, adding that if no change is made in greenhouse gas emissions, the global average temper ature will increase 2.7 to 10.4 degrees by the year 2100. Nevertheless, Doppelt emphasized the importance of climate protection action plans — even if greenhouse gas emissions stopped today, it would take more than 100 years for atmos pheric conditions to return to normal. “Humans are the cause of the prob lems today, which means they are not beyond our control,” Doppelt said. Femal said that while the film and speaker series was an experimental event, it’s likely to become an annual one. In the lobby outside the room where the lectures were given, a small television played a continuous repeat of Baldwin’s last public inter view on video, at a community fo rum at Cozmic Pizza in February. In the video, Baldwin described a trip he took to Madras, India, with a group of University students, where the students observed that the local people were happy and healthy even though they had no money are you an undergraduate interested in recruiting new students? 25 paid positions for the 2005-6 school year Travel opportunities, flexible hours (7 -12 weekly) Ambassadors give campus tours, are part of Duck football recruiting, and host more than 15,000 visitors a year Contact 346-1274 or amba$$@darkwing,uoregon,edu or stop by 465 Oregon Hall for an application Student Groups! Advertise in the Emerald call 346-4343 or place your ad online at www.dailyemerald.com Zane Ritt | Photographer Joanie Kleban of Greater Goods shows her collection of colorful products to Ben Welch during an Earth Day celebration Saturday. and few Western devices such as televisions. “You can live as a normal everyday American, and you don’t have to buy into ... the existing orders,” Baldwin said in the video. evasylwester© daily emerald. com Evolution Gaming Eugene s Premier Game Store Cards! Minis! RPGs! Anime! Open ‘till 2 AM Friday and Saturday night! 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