FORMER Saipan resident Bob Schwalbach will be back on island for four weeks beginning May 26 to give presentations on global warming, a media release stated.
The presentations are based on the Oscar-winning movie “An Inconvenient Truth” by former Vice President Al Gore.
Most scientists agree that change in the earth’s atmosphere caused by human activity is raising global temperatures, lifting sea level, and posing a serious threat to life on the planet.
Schwalbach will be available to schools, businesses, community groups, and government organizations that want to see the presentation. Individuals are also welcome to sponsor showings in their homes. There is no charge.
“On a small, and isolated island, we are especially vulnerable to the effects of global warming,” Schwalbach said. “A lot of people live only a few feet above sea level. We may face stronger and more frequent typhoons. And we are dependent on carbon fuels that are going to be more regulated and expensive. The presentation that Vice President Gore put together makes it a lot easier to understand what’s happening — and should encourage people to take the necessary action so we have a chance to avoid the worst effects. It’s a global problem. Even here in the CNMI we have to be part of the solution.”
Schwalbach, who is studying at the Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is part of group of 1,000 volunteers trained by the former vice president with the goal of reaching two million people in the United States with the global warming slide show. Gore has also trained volunteers for “The Climate Project” in Great Britain and Australia.
In Nashville, Tennessee, Schwalbach took part in a three-day tutorial on the cause and effect of global warming led by Gore and including a team of scientists and environmental educators.
To complement his training with Gore, Schwalbach has also been taking a course in “Global Climate Change: The Science, Social Impact and Diplomacy of a World Environmental Crisis” under Dr. William R. Moomaw, professor of environmental policy at Tufts University. Moomaw is one of the many scientists who have worked together on the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since its creation in 1988.
Schwalbach is a member of the Mariana Islands Nature Alliance.
For more information, e-mail Jude O. Marfil-Schwalbach at jgomarfil@gmail.com.