UW-Madison News Release--Clean Energy Symposium

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
4/28/06

CONTACT: Erhard Joeres, (608) 273-1110, joeres@engr.wisc.edu

SYMPOSIUM EXPLORES 'CLEAN' ENERGY SOURCES

MADISON — Notable energy experts from across the United States and as far away as France will consider energy-production impacts and choices at a symposium hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The symposium will be held Monday and Tuesday, May 8-9, at Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison.

"Consider the Alternatives: Options for Energy Production from Non-Carbon-Emitting Sources" is the theme of the event, which features nearly a dozen speakers from government, academia and industry.

Stanley Bull, associate director for science and technology at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Mark Little, senior vice president and director of global research for General Electric Corp., will give keynote presentations.

"It is clear that we need to explore the development and utilization of new technologies and fuel supplies to protect the environment, achieve energy independence and strengthen Wisconsin's economy," says symposium coordinator Erhard Joeres, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering and environmental studies at UW-Madison.

Joeres says the prospect of worldwide climate change, especially global warming, resulting from human activity has moved beyond speculation to questions of how quickly it may occur and how high temperatures will rise.

"A key factor in climate change is the discharge of materials like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which creates the 'greenhouse effect,'" he explains. "The combustion of carbon-based fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas is a major source of [carbon dioxide] — the primary greenhouse gas — and other substances implicated in a number of environmental problems."

Other consequences of fossil fuel use include acid rain, mercury-contaminated fish in Wisconsin lakes and heightened occurrences of asthma, emphysema and other human illnesses, according to Joeres. And because there are no fossil fuel reserves in Wisconsin, every dollar spent to purchase them leaves the state.

"All of these are compelling reasons for us to pursue and develop large-scale alternative energy sources," says Joeres.

The symposium will address current climate change, human and environmental health impacts linked to carbon-based fuels, and options, policy choices and political impediments to the use of non-carbon-emitting energy sources.

Joeres says the meeting is intended for policy makers, public- and private-sector energy and environmental professionals, educators, students and citizens.

Co-sponsors are the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, the Department of Engineering Physics, the College of Engineering, the Energy Institute and the Office of the Chancellor at UW-Madison; the S.C. Johnson Foundation of Racine; and the Energy Center of Wisconsin.

For an agenda, speaker biographies, registration information and additional details, visit http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/outreach/energy2006.
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- Tom Sinclair, (608) 263-5599



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Phone: (608) 262-3571
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An interesting discussion on oil politics and alternative fuels is brewing HERE.

UW-Madison News Release--Lester Brown Lecture

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
4/12/06

CONTACT: Tom Sinclair, (608) 263-5599, tksincla@wisc.edu

ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATE TO LECTURE ON WORLD POPULATION

MADISON - An environmental advocate who The Washington Post has called "one of the world's most influential thinkers" will give a free public lecture on Thursday, April 20, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Lester Brown will speak at 7:30 p.m. in 272 Bascom Hall, 500 Lincoln Drive, on world population and other topics covered in his latest book, "Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble."

Brown, the founder and president of the Washington, D.C.-based Earth Policy Institute, helped pioneer the concept of environmentally sustainable development. Educated in agriculture, economics, and public administration, he has studied global issues related to food, population, water, climate change and renewable energy. His writings on those and other subjects have been translated into some 40 languages.

For 26 years, Brown was president of the Worldwatch Institute, the first independent research organization devoted to global environmental issues, which he founded in 1974. While there, he launched the World Watch Papers, the Worldwatch/Norton books, the annual "State of the World" report, the bimonthly magazine World Watch and the annual publication "Vital Signs."

His many prizes and awards include more than 20 honorary degrees, a MacArthur Fellowship, the 1987 United Nations' Environment Prize, the 1989 World Wide Fund for Nature Gold Medal and the 1994 Blue Planet Prize for his "exceptional contributions to solving global environmental problems."

Brown's UW-Madison lecture is the fourth in a series honoring the late Wisconsin governor and U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a lifelong champion of environmental stewardship and the founder of Earth Day, which is celebrated annually on April 22.

The lecture is sponsored by the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, with support from the Holstrom Environmental Endowment and the Kemper K. Knapp Bequest. For more information, contact Tom Sinclair at (608) 263-5599 or tksincla@wisc.edu.
###
- Tom Sinclair, (608) 263-5599



****************************************************
For questions or comments about UW-Madison's email
news release system, please send an email to:
releases@news.wisc.edu

For more UW-Madison news, please visit:
http://www.news.wisc.edu/

University Communications
University of Wisconsin-Madison
27 Bascom Hall
500 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706

Phone: (608) 262-3571
Fax: (608) 262-2331

Manufacturing power from manure
special report Start-ups are finding new forms of energy in an unlikely source: barnyard animals.
Mon Apr 10 04:00:00 PDT 2006 | Read the story