KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2010 / NEWS
7A
ENVIRONMENT
Misinformation clouds climate change
Co-winner of Nobel Prize discusses separating fact from fiction in the green movement
Stephen Schneider, a climatologist from Stanford, speaks about his book "Science as a Contact Sport: Inside the Battle to Save Earth's Climate" Monday afternoon at the Burge Union. Schneider received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work with the Interagency Panel on Climate Change.
BY SAMANTHA FOSTER sfoster@kansan.com
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
To Stephen Schneider, the fight to save the earth's climate is a contact sport.
But this game has almost no rules and no referees, Schneider said.
Schneider said climate change was a battle because so many claims and counter-claims were involved. He said individuals had to be responsible for sifting through fact and fiction to determine the truth about what is happening to the climate.
"A democracy functions when the people know what's going on," he said.
Schneider said that when public opinion on climate change threatened companies' market shares, they reacted by spinning information and cherry-picking data to make it look like they didn't negatively affect the climate. He gave the example of fossil fuel ads that ran during the Olympic games. The ad campaign focused on the number of jobs and productivity created by coal mining
while ignoring air pollution from burning fossil fuels.
"It becomes up to you, the public, to figure out who's giving it to you straight," Schneider said. "We have to become literate citizens to learn how to do that."
Gavin Strunk, a graduate student from Wichita, said he came
"it's kind of like pre-research to the actual research." Strunk said.
to hear Schneider's talk because it was related to a research project he was considering on alternative fuels.
Schneider said he was concerned about reducing the human footprint on the environment as
"We in essence can take the democracy back by making the value judgments about what kind of world we want to leave to our children and grandchildren," he said.
quickly as possible before passing too many tipping points — points when it was no longer possible to fix the harm that had been done. He asked whether people wanted their legacy to be a world of wealth and infrastructure at the cost of an impoverished environment.
Edited by Katie Blankenau
LAWRENCE
Graduation brings venues business
Park shelters, restaurants booked months in advance for graduation celebrations
BY ALEESE KOPF akopf@kansan.com
Graduation means the busiest weekend of the year for many businesses in Lawrence. Restaurants, bars, hotels and park shelter are nearly all booked in anticipation of the weekend of May 14-16.
"Graduation weekend is by far the number one weekend of the year," Laurent said. "Other than that it's hit and miss."
Tim Laurent, facilities operations supervisor for the City of Lawrence, said the 13 city-owned park shelters are all reserved for graduation weekend. 41 events are scheduled at the different shelters, almost all of which are graduation parties.
Many of the shelter们 were booked in February, March and April, but some were booked as far back as November. Still, people continue calling to try to schedule events for graduation weekend.
"We'vee had to tell of people that there's no space available." Laurent said.
A l e x
Murnan, a
senior from
which owns The Oread, The Eldridge and The Eldridge Extended hotels.
Besides being a busy time of year for hotels, local restaurants are also seeing the effects of graduation weekend.
Nancy Longhurst, general manager for the hotels, said The Oread and The Eldridge usually have several graduation parties per night over the three-day weekend. Longhurst said the three hotels are also completely booked the weekends before and after graduation.
The Eldridge Hotel and Eldridge Extended have three party rooms, while The Oread has seven rooms as well as a 5th floor terrace. She said rooms for graduation weekends were booked a year in advance.
Despite being booked on Saturday and nearly booked
"That's our biggest weekend of the year," said Elwood Schaad, a waiter at Pachamams.
"Graduation weekend is by far the number one weekend of the year."
TIM LAURENT Facilities operations supervisor for the City of Lawrence
Pittsburg, was trying to book a shelter for her friend's surprise graduation party when she found out there was no space available. She said she thought calling four months ahead would have been plenty of time.
And it's not just park shelters that are booked.
"When I called the city parks and recreation department and told them that's what I wanted to do, the lady laughed at me," Murnan said. "She told me she would look but that park shelters for graduation weekend had been booked for months."
on Sunday, Schaad said they still receive three to five calls a day asking about reservations for graduation weekend.
"All of our hotels are sold out," said Patti McCormick, director of media for the Olivia Collection.
A l e x
Hamilton, restaurant man
ager at Free State Brewery, said the restaurant was still frequently receiving calls as well. Hamilton said graduation weekend was one of the busiest weekends of the year for Free State. Some of their rooms are already booked for the entire weekend, with reservations scheduled a year in advance.
RosieRobertson,assistantmanager at Abe and lake's Landing, said they will be completely full the Saturday before graduation. She said the rest of the weekend also had events booked, but that making accommodations was still possible.
Edited by Michael Holtz
NATIONAL
Army officer steals $700,000 in Iraq
humanitarian relief, rebuilding projects and security services. The 28-year-old pleaded guilty to theft and money laundering charges.
Michael Dung Nguyen stole more than $690,000 entrusted to him for distribution to
PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon man who stole nearly $700,000 from the U.S. government while
serving as an Army captain in Iraq was sentenced to 30 months in prison Monday.
Associated Press
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