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Aur Beck said it is time to shed some light on environmental issues - fluorescent light.
Beck, chief tech for Advanced Energy Solutions, was one of more than a hundred people who participated in the fifth annual Heartland Bioneers Conference. The conference was held in the Student Health Center auditorium, where participants could watch the keynote speakers from the main Bioneer Conference in San Rafael, Calif., via satellite.
The speakers addressed the challenges that face the environment and explained their ideas to solve them.
Beck said the conference is a good way to show people how they can get involved, no matter how small their contributions to a healthier environment may seem.
"If everyone in Illinois replaced their light bulbs with fluorescent lights, it would be equal to taking 100,000 cars off the road," Beck said. "The word is starting to get out. These satellite conferences have outgrown the main conference in California."
The conference expanded to 18 satellite locations and featured 15 keynote speakers this year.
Each speaker focused on a different topics ranging from sustainability to the relationship between the environment and the economy. Steve Smaczniak, a graduate student from Columbia College, said his favorite speaker Dune Lankard.
Lankard spoke of his time in Alaska and how the oil spills in his region made him realize things needed to be done to preserve ecosystems while still sustaining successful economies.
Smaczniak said it was an inspiring speech because it was a fresh viewpoint, which he hopes to be able to convey when he becomes a teacher.
"Taking care of the environment requires activism, but it is also interconnected with everything we do," he said. "When we talk about business or politics we have to talk about the environment, because everything is a part of it."
Dan DiMeo, a senior from Knox College in Galesburg, agreed the environment affects everything, which makes it more important that people do not have misconceptions about what "going green" really means.
He said it is a vital point in history both environmentally and politically, and if actions are not taken soon to change the course of global warming it could become too late.
"It is important this movement does not become another 'ism'," DiMeo said. "This is for the overall good and it affects much more than just the natural environment."
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Kris Schachel, coordinator of the Heartland Bioneers Conference, said the goal of the event is to show people how easy it is to help the environment. She said the number of people attending the conference has increased every year, and the participants walk away more inspired each time.
"This is about walking the talk," she said. "You don't have to be a scientist to make a difference, and even though these speakers have made scientific contributions, they talk about what they are doing on a daily basis to inspire people."
The most ambitious goal outlined in the speeches was a call for the bioneers to rally together and get as many people to petition the next president of the United States, no matter who is elected, to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland this December.
The conference would serve as a pre-meeting to the Copenhagen Conference in 2009, where a new treaty is expected to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
The speaker who called for the movement, said Copenhagen would be the last real chance at changing the course of the environment.
Jeff Engelhardt can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 268 or jengel@siu.edu
