Bulletin News

04/10/2012 

Steven Leibo, a radio commentator and University of Albany history lecturer who was personally trained by former United States Vice President Al Gore to give presentations about climate change, will discuss the potential destructive effects of a climate shift on Monday, April 16, at SUNY Cortland.

Leibo will present “Saving Civilization: The Global Fight Against Devastating Climate Change,” at 7:30 p.m. in Sperry Center, Room 105, kicking off SUNY Cortland’s Sustainability Week.

Steven Leibo

Sustainability Week events will run through Sunday, April 22. This year, the activities will include a local Farmer’s Market, the annual sustainability luncheon, environment-related sandwich seminars, the screening of an environmental docu-comedy, the Cortland Blooms Festival and much more. 

Leibo, a professor in the History and Politics Department at Russell-Sage College, has focused his international affairs broadcasts on WAMC Northeast Public Radio around climate crisis and energy conservation. A frequently cited expert on climate issues in regional television, radio and print media reports, he has given more than 100 formal presentations since he finished his training with Gore and The Climate Project in Nashville, Tenn., in 2007. His training allows him to give updated presentations of Gore’s Academy Award-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

A scholar in the relationship between Asia and the West, Leibo incorporates climate-change material into a wide range of the courses he teaches and recently joined Brill Publications as the international adviser and co-editor of an upcoming book on Chinese climate research. Leibo is the editor or author of several academic and popular publications. His most recent article, “Asia and the Climate Crisis,” appeared in the January 2011 issue of Education about Asia.

A farmer's market will be offered on Wednesday, April 18, to encourage students to buy locally and think globally.

Some, but not nearly all events scheduled for Sustainability Week include:

• “Buy Locally — Think Globally: Cortland’s Own Farmers Market” on Wednesday, April 18. Campus groups devoted to purchasing locally grown and produced foods and other healthy and sustainable goods are hosting the market from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Neubig Hall. Area vendors will offer vegetables, aquaponics, baked goods, personal care products, cleaning products and local photography. Purchases will be cash only.

This event is being sponsored by the Student Affairs Sustainability Committee in partnership with Auxiliary Services Corporation. It is also is a part of the College’s ongoing Wellness Wednesday series of events.

• YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip), a comedic documentary highlighting sustainability systems and schemes in 50 states, will be screened at a time and place yet to be determined on Tuesday, April 17.

• The 2nd annual Cortland Blooms Festival will wrap up the week’s events on Sunday, April 22, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The festival, which will take place in the Cortland County Office Building Gymnasium downtown, is an interactive day of activities aimed at helping the community celebrate Earth Day and Cortland County’s sustainability.

Bus shuttles will leave from Corey Union at 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to take students to the downtown event. There will be return shuttles. Workshops and demonstrations about gardening, recycling, composting, conservation, wildlife and more will be given as a part of the festival. Other events include an alternative energy vehicle show in the parking lot and an outdoor market.

The festival is sponsored by Sustainable Cortland, the Local Agriculture Promotion Committee and Cortland County Soil and Water Conservation District. For more information on the festival, contact sustainablecortland@gmail.com.

For additional information on Sustainability Week 2012 events, contact Brice Smith, an associate professor and chair of physics, or Nasrin Parvizi, associate vice president for facilities management.