Earth Action speaker Janelle Hansen was one out of 1,000 chosen to be trained by Al Gore to present the Global Warming Crisis. Clark students had the opportunity to watch the presentation in the Penguin Union Building on April 23.
 
    Hansen did an hour long overview of updated information from the film  An Inconvenient Truth. Hansen showed 800 slides in which she says that humans are responsible for CO2 gasses causing major climate change.
 
    “You don’t need to be a scientist to notice the correlation between the drop in temperature and increase of CO2 gases,” Hansen says.

    Hansen says that the increase in climate change has caused significant damage to melting glaciers. Hansen showed a map of Antarctica and compared it with newer satellite pictures. Hansen says it took a little over a month for a huge chunk of ice to melt off. Hansen says that the melting can result in the increase of oceanic levels. She says maps of the world have been re-drawn because of significant changes.
 
    “Glaciers melting is a world wide phenomenon,” Hansen says.
 
    Hansen says that the global warming crisis has effected some of the major storms like Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina. Hansen says that around 130,000 people were displaced because of Hurricane Katrina.
 
    “We became a force of nature,” Hansen says. “We have become mass destruction.”
 
    Hansen says that if every country in the world used the same amount of resources as North America, five earths would be needed. Hansen showed charts and graphs of how much carbon emission is used per person and the U.S., comparing to other countries like China and Japan. Hansen says the U.S. is using the most.

    “Its not something that happened over night,” Hansen says. “It means we have time to turn things around.”
 
    Hansen says that talking to people about global warming is the most effective way to promote change. She says solutions like solar energy and wind energy are tremendous resources. From an individual standpoint, Hansen says that changing to energy efficient light bulbs and unplugging appliances that are not being used can help save energy in the home. Hansen says although a lot of pollution can come from vehicles, most pollution comes from homes more so than cars.

    “I think that awareness is important," Clark student Katelyn Peters says. “More people should have been here.”
 
    Student Life and Multicultural Affairs Program Director Samantha Lelo says she found Hansen through the local agency Portland Night and Day. Lelo says that the Global Warming Crisis event fit into Earth Week’s theme: Global Local Action. Lelo says that the event was catered toward the next day’s event that showed  An Inconvenient Truth. She says that students might find it interesting that Hansen went through Gore’s training for presenting the crisis.
 
    “I think the turn out was great,” Lelo says.