Speakers from all over country came to CU
Due to a reporting error, the Campus Press misquoted CU professor Maxine Burkett from a speech given at the Climate Change Conference. We pride ourselves on accuracy and sincerely regret the mistake.
The CU Law School hosted the first national climate change conference this weekend in the Wittemyer Courtroom of the Wolf Law Building. The conference was a success with over 150 people in the audience.
The conference featured 12 speakers from all over the country that have a prominent voice in finding solutions for environmental injustices that effect poor communities and communities of color.
“This conference is a response to the disproportionate exposure that environmental issues raises in poor communities,” said Maxine Burkett, Associate Professor of Law and organizer of the conference.
The audience was able to interact with the speakers’ educational power point lessons about various important environmental issues of today. The topics ranged from global warming to the recycling of used materials and energy to low-income housing. The forte of panelists included top lawyers and law professors from around the country as well as Congressman Mark Udall and Chairman of the National Wildlife Federation, Jerome Ringo.
Mark Udall represents Colorado’s second district that includes Boulder and its surrounding areas. Udall is the co-chair of the House of Renewable Energy and Energy efficiency. Udall is also a familiar leader in promoting a balanced energy plan which was a topic of interest throughout the conference.
Jerome Ringo is the first African American to be in a high position at a major national environmental organization. His speech was geared to educating the audience and lobbying the Hill towards investing in alternative clean energy sources by using energy efficient technology.
With the high level of education and success, the speakers were still able to interact with their audience on a casual level. Willie Shepherd, Chairman and Co-Founder of the law firm Kamlet, Shepherd and Reichert, LLP, was able to lightheartedly muse about his anxiety of stepping back into a law school and joke about his not-so honorable college grades. His speech was centered around recycling damaged land into something beneficial for the public. Shepherd spoke about the affordable housing neighborhood that has been built over the old Stapleton airport to exemplify his point.
Although the conference was geared towards the effects environmental issues have on black communities and other poor regions, one scholar spoke of his research done with Native American tribes. Dean Suagee is Of Council to the law firm of Hobbs, Straus, Dean and Walker, LLP, in Washington D.C. The firm specializes in legal counsel for American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments. Suagee addressed the importance of energy efficiency and renewable energy in an era of global warming and national reliance of foreign energies. He stressed the importance of sustainable housing in low-income areas.
“There are a number of reasons why this topic is important. We do have a moral obligation to come up with immediate and just solutions as they will affect the poor and people of color,” said Burkett.
Contact Campus Press staff writer Tate Delloye at tate.delloye@thecampuspress.com
