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The Rice Thresher
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By Elizabeth Decker and Rachel Krause Thresher staff About 90 people - including about 30 students - attended last Saturday's Environmental Conference, sponsored by the Rice Environmental Club. The conference featured a keynote speech by Ken Kramer, director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, several forums and presentations of the Greene Prize, awards to students for papers about the environment. The conference was funded with money from the Energy and Environmental Systems Institute and the President's Programming Fund. After conference co-director Jennifer Trub made opening statements, she introduced Kramer, who received his doctorate in political science from Rice in 1979. Kramer first addressed the challenges of environmental problems such as deforestation, for which there are no simple solutions. However, he said, individuals have the power to force change, especially if they join together in a grassroots organization focused on a specific issue, like the Sierra Club. "A key thing is that if individuals can organize together and join together, then they can multiply the effects of their individual activities," he said. Kramer said there are reasons to be optimistic about our ability to meet current environmental challenges in the future. Kramer also discussed the impact of technological advances in the environmental sphere. He pointed out that while technology neither solves nor causes all environmental problems, it can have positive effects. Following a vegetarian lunch, a forum entitled "A Sense of Place" began with Charlie Mauch, Green Party candidate for the Railroad Commission, and Doug Sandage, Green candidate for the U.S. Senate. Munch cautioned against the growing dominance of large corporations in American public and private life. "I think that these big corporations basically control our whole society," including the government, our livelihoods and the media, he said. Forum participants examined how Americans lost their sense of place and came up with suggestions to regain it, such as walking instead of driving or getting to know your neighborhood and neighbors. After the first forum, the 11 students who submitted works in the Greene Prize Student Environmental Paper Contest gave brief descriptions of their works. Wiess College senior Dana Hunt received first prize in the survey category for a paper focusing on Hermann Park. In the original research category, Brown College freshman Tim Perkins was awarded first prize for his survey of a lake and shoreline ecosystem in Washington state. The second forum, entitled "Ecology in a Sense of Place," opened with two presentations focused on local ecosystems and ecological problems in the Houston area. Mark Kramer from the Armand Bayou Nature Center spoke about the center's mission of education, preservation and restoration. He also spoke on bayou ecology and the three important ecosystems in Pasadena. Jude Benavides, a graduate student in the Environmental Science and Engineering Department, talked about flood control in the Houston area. Following this forum, a panel of five Rice alumni spoke about how they have kept their commitment to the environment since graduation. Panel members were Justus Baird (Baker '96), who works with the Citizens' Environmental Coalition in Houston; Ryan McMullan (Baker '98), Rice's Recycling Coordinator; Kari Vigerstol (Sid Richardson'00), with the Massachusetts Community Water Watch; Michael Ford (Lovett '98), a consultant working with oil and gas companies who hopes to create change from the inside; and Alex Bain (Brown '00), an entrepreneur. The conference included displays in Kelley Lounge by the Houston Audubon Society, International Right to Know, the Galveston Bay Foundation, Rice Geographic Snformation System and the Rice Recycling Club. Trub and Pietruszewski, Jones College seniors, said they began planning the conference last year. Pietruszewski said about 75 people were present at any point in the conference, and he was pleased with the turnout. "I thought it went great - it was nice to see a good turnout," Pietruszewski said. "I'd say that we achieved our goals for the day." In particular, Pietruszewski said he thought students enjoyed the afternoon forums because they gave students a chance to discuss the issues. "I think they saw the opportunity to participate as something really positive," he said. The conference, titled "It's the End of the World as We Know it, and I Feel Fine: A Sense of Place in the New Millennium," was the ninth annual environmental conference at Rice.
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