Author Offers Encouraging View of Grassroots Efforts in Fight Against Climate Change 
American University adjunct professor Robert Musil, PhD, MPH, '01, encouraged students, faculty and visitors to become engaged in the environmental movement in a lecture and book signing February 17 at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Musil noted the difficulties of green-oriented groups in referring to the environment. “The very term ‘environment’ seems to be something outside of us,” he told the audience. “And it’s hard to connect the environment to the people,” he said. “The environment is not something simply outside of us. The environment is inside us.” In his book, Hope for a Heated Planet: How Americans are Fighting Global Warming and Building a Better Future, Musil discusses the evolution of the grassroots movement in mobilizing citizens on issues surrounding global climate change. During his talk, sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, he cited the upcoming Energy Action Coalition’s “PowerShift ‘09” as a prime example of a grassroots campaign taking hold. This event “should give you tremendous hope,” he told the audience. From February 27 to March 2, over 10,000 college students are expected to converge on Washington to lobby on climate change, according to Musil. Organizers say the event will bring the large group of students to Washington to “hold elected officials accountable for rebuilding the economy and reclaiming the future through bold climate and clean energy policy.” Musil cited environmental issues surrounding coal use and the industry’s promotion of clean coal technology. “Yes, one half of our nation’s electricity comes from coal, but over a third of all carbon emissions come from coal-fired utilities,” he noted, discussing the difficulties in countering multi-million dollar advertising expenditures by the coal industry in promoting clean coal technology. “Coal is one of those areas where you have to focus your resources and get allies. If you’re in a grassroots coalition, you should be screaming ‘no coal…no coal…no coal.’” Musil is scholar in residence and adjunct professor in the School of International Studies at American University where he teaches in the Program on Global Environmental Politics and in the Nuclear Studies Institute. He is also a visiting scholar at the Churches’ Center for Theology and Public Policy, Wesley Theological Seminary, where he is researching, writing and teaching about religious responses to global warming and security threats. From 1992–2006, Musil was the longest-serving Executive Director and CEO of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), winner of the 1985 Nobel Prize for Peace. During his tenure, he more than doubled PSR’s membership, budget and staff. He is a graduate of Yale and Northwestern universities and the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, and has been a visiting honorary fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and of Pembroke College, Cambridge University. |
