As members of the ‘Green Team,’ we have recognized that global warming is a serious issue that affects all of us. Our focus for this assignment is the impact of global warming on our lives and how we as students can take action and combat the effects of global warming. Throughout the term, this Writing for the Media Professional class has introduced us to a new and vital form of communication – blogging. As we each agreed that blogging is a great way to express our ideas and views on a particular issue that concerns all of us, we decided that we will present our group project in the form of a blog. This will allow other bloggers to communicate with us as well as indicate how they feel about global warming and the issues that we raise. By choosing the blog as our form of presentation, we were then able to present our research in different ways.

Whilst we have discovered that there are many student groups at OSU who have joined together to raise awareness of the effects of global warming, there are also a number of students who know very little about how their actions and daily choices are affecting the future of our environment. A particular student group that we have chosen to focus on is the Solar Vehicle Team. This group has designed and created a solar powered vehicle to compete in the 2008 North American Solar Challenge. We interviewed members of the group and they provided us with a number of positive reasons why such a project is just one example of the ways students at OSU can get involved and promote the benefits of a green environment. We decided that our interviews with various members of the SVT would best be represented as a documentary and so Lindsey chose to accelerate her passion for film production and should be credited for her filming and editing skills.

We then decided that it was important to learn about global warming from professors who have a particular interest in this issue. Jake tried to interview Nicholas Drapela, who is known for his outspoken opinions on how and why global warming does not exist, however unfortunately this did not work out. Hannah spoke to Steve Cook, who confirmed that global warming is a problem that we must address. This feedback provided us with an interesting perspective on the issue in its entirety.

Finally, we decided that it was important to collaborate the research that we found individually to create a ‘how to’ guide on conserving the environment and saving energy. We hope you enjoy our presentation and gain as much from the information we have provided you as we have!

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Introducing members of the Green Team and how they have contributed to this project:

Lindsey Pierce:
My name is Lindsey Pierce and I am 21. I transferred from Linfield College to Oregon
State University after one year. This is my second year studying New Media Communications at OSU. My focus is on video production. I grew up in Tualatin, Ore. with my parents, older sister, and younger brother.

How I came up with my story:
I was researching on the Oregon State University Web site to find environmental clubs. The most interesting one that I found was the Solar Vehicle Team. The team was a good example of students making positive choices to help the future of the environment, which is the topic of our project. This type of club also seemed to lend itself to a visual medium, so I decided to make a documentary about the club.

Hannah Boekemann:
My name is Hannah Boekemann and I am a senior in New Media and Communications. I am 21 years old and I am currently studying at OSU on a six-month exchange program. I am from Sydney, Australia and I will be finishing my journalism degree at Charles Sturt University at the end of this year. I have always had an interest in writing and the communications industry and this Writing for the Media Professional class has enabled me to explore my passion even further.

I feel that my strength is in writing and so I have aimed to work on my writing and reporting skills throughout this group project. However, I did enjoy learning about how to use the camera equipment as well as uploading video footage onto the computer. I chose to work with the green team because I know very little about global warming and how it will effect our future. Speaking to students from the solar vehicle team as well as a professor in geosciences has certainly improved my knowledge and understanding of this topic. Whilst we have chosen to speak to a number of different people, I interviewed Steve Cook in order to find out his opinion on global warming as well as to find out some ways that we can begin to combat global warming before it’s too late. I therefore used the information that Cook provided me with to write a mini profile story on him and the truth about the current global climate. I also asked him some tips on how to save energy and conserve the environment. I also did some research on global warming so that I could form a ‘how to’ guide on ways that we can all save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Jake Lowden:

My name is Jake Lowden; I am a New Media Communications option. I am finishing my third year at Oregon State University. I am twenty-one years old and I have lived in Oregon City, Oregon my entire life. I am most interested in the video production part of the New Media spectrum. In this project I contributed in the filming of the video documentary about the Solar Car Club.

Coming into this project I was sort of skeptic of Global Warming in regards to whether it is true or not. After listening to many of the members of the Solar Car Club express their opinions, I found that even if Global Warming is only a theory, it can’t hurt to make the necessary positive steps to fight Global Warming and improve the environment.

I showed Lindsey the introduction that I wrote to the group project and she liked it so we started to create the blog and put our introduction as well as Lindsey and my biographical details as well as how we contributed to the project. I also showed Lindsey my profile story and she thought that it was good. I just need to check a couple of details with Cook and then I will be able to post it. While we were waiting for the footage to upload, I started to write the ‘how to’ guide. I got most of my information from the US Environmental Protection website and changed it into my own words. I referred to this site in my introduction and I will also cite this information at the end of the guide.  I think it provides some useful tips so I think it adds something extra to our project.

We also added some links to the class blog that- a couple that Lindsey has used and then a few that I have also used for some background research.

Apart from that, we just need to post Jake’s work and we will be finished. We have planned to meet tomorrow at 5pm before our class to do some finishing touches. I’m really pleased with all the work we have done and I hope the rest of the class enjoys our presentation. 

1) What is your understanding of global warming?

2) Do you think it is real and can be supported by scientific evidence or do you believe that it is simply a theory? Why?

3) What are your experiences with Steve Cook?

4) Do you know much about his home water system?

5) Did you learn much about global warming during your classes with Cook? Did anything that he said, change your views?

6) Do you try to save energy while you are at home or in the dorms?

During my interview with Cook, he also mentioned that a woman named Andrea Norris has been involved in some ‘green’ activities around the campus. I e-mailed her to ask her how she has been involved in promoting ‘going green’ as well as her opinion of Cook. I am hoping that she will get back to me before tomorrow so that I can include a quote from her into my profile story. 

 I also found a couple of really interesting websites on global warming that we can attach to our blog if people want to have a further look at anything we may have discussed. I’ll attach them to my blog so that I don’t forget the web addresses:

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ 

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2008/May08/greenhouse.html 

http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/events/2007paulingconference/video-s3-4-washington.html

http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/Default.asp 

Here is the intro that I have come up with so far:

 As members of the ‘Green Team,’ we have recognized that global warming is a serious issue that affects all of us. Our focus for this assignment is the impact of global warming on our lives and how we as students can take action and combat the effects of global warming. Throughout the term, this Writing for the Media Professional class has introduced us to a new and vital form of communication- blogging. As we each agreed that blogging is a great way to express our ideas and views on a particular issue that concerns all of us, we decided that we will present our group project in the form of a blog. This will allow other bloggers to communicate with us as well as indicate how they feel about global warming and the issues that we raise. By choosing the blog as our form of presentation, we were then able to present our research in a different ways.

Whilst we have discovered that there are many student groups at OSU who have joined together to raise awareness of the effects of global warming, there are also a number of students who know very little about how their actions and daily choices are affecting the future of our environment. A particular student group that we have chosen to focus on is the Solar Vehicle Team. This group has designed and created a solar powered vehicle to compete in the 2008 North American Solar Challenge. We interviewed each member of the group and they provided us with a number of positive reasons why such a project is just one example of the ways students at OSU can get involved and promote the benefits of a green environment. We decided that our interviews with various members of the SVT would best be represented as a documentary and so Lindsey chose to accelerate her passion for film production and should be credited for her filming and editing skills.

We then decided that it was important to learn about global warming from professors who have a particular interest in this issue. Jake chose to interview Nicholas Drapellar, who is known for his outspoken opinions on how and why global warming does not exist, whilst Hannah spoke to Steve Cook, who confirmed that global warming is a problem that we must address. These conflicting views provided us with an interesting perspective on the issue in its entirety. Finally, we decided that it was important to collaborate the research that we found individually to create a ‘how to’ guide on conserving the environment and saving energy. We hope you enjoy our presentation and gain as much from the information we have provided you as we have!

1) What is your title and how long have you been teaching at OSU?

2) What is your passion in life?

3) Can you tell me about your home water system?

4) What is global warming?

5) What would you say to people who don’t believe in global warming?

6) Are you aware of any particular ways that OSU is aiming to combat global warming?

7) Do you know much about the solar vehicle team? What do you think?

8) What are some of the ways that we can conserve energy and the environment?

9) What are your thoughts on the future?

 I’m not exactly sure whether this should be presented as a profile story or simply an article about global warming and what some people are doing to combat it.  I guess this way I could include some of the information provided in The New York Times article about students and the environment.  I also think it would be great to include the ‘how to’ piece somewhere on our blog, so I might do some extra research on that. 

This article could be helpful for our possible ‘how to’ piece as it lists a number of steps people could and should take to overcome global warming.  It might be useful for us to use as a guide along with Steve Cook’s advice.