Are we cooking the planet?

Author Jeff Goodell, whose 2006 book Big Coal provides ?a clear sense of the tradeoffs we face in our feverish quest for inexpensive energy,? according to The Washington Post, will discuss ?Cooking the Climate with Coal? at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31, in Gannett Auditorium of Palamountain Hall.

Free and open to the public, the talk is the keynote address for Skidmore?s Focus the Nation, a national observance designed to increase awareness about global warming.

Goodell will explore the most difficult and urgent issue in the fight against global warming: what to do about coal? He explained, ?Most people think coal went out with top hats and corsets. In fact, more than half of the electricity in America is generated with coal. Americans burn more than a billion tons of coal a year?per capita, about 20 pounds each day. This country has more coal than any other nation?by some measures, we have a 250-year supply.?

But this is not just an American issue. In China, a new coal plant is built each week. ?Unfortunately,? notes Goodell, ?coal is the most carbon-intensive of all fossil fuels. If we burn it, we will cook the planet.?

His talk will seek to answer such questions as: how do we wean ourselves off coal? In this global warming world, is coal public-enemy number one?

Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future (Houghton Mifflin), was chosen as one of the best nonfiction books of 2006 by Kirkus Reviews. Goodell also is the author of three previous books, is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine. He lives in Saratoga Springs with his wife and three children.

His Skidmore appearance will help Skidmore and the community focus on global climate change. The College is joining with organizations throughout the country this week to participate in Focus the Nation (FTN), an initiative designed to increase awareness about global warming.

FTN is the brainchild of Eban Goodstein, an environmental economist at Lewis and Clark University, who taught at Skidmore during the early 1990s. Billed by organizers as the biggest teach-in ever, with more than 10,000 volunteers bringing events to over 1,200 schools, faith and civic organizations, and businesses, FTN includes voter registration drives and on-campus voting for a National Student Agenda on Climate Change. The signature national event is an interactive web cast titled The 2% Solution, featuring a panel of experts and youth leaders, who will discuss global climate change and possible solutions. Scheduled at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30, in Gannett Auditorium, the event will encourage audience participation via cell-phone voting.

On Thursday, Jan. 31, a full range of activities will encourage consideration of the issue from a variety of perspectives. From 3 to 5 p.m. that day, the Dana Hall lobby (outside of Gannett Auditorium) will be the scene of a poster session of climate-related student work, which will be up all week. The featured poster will be ?Skidmore's Carbon Budget,? by students in Cathy Gibson's Urban Ecology Class.

A discussion later that day promises to be ?one of the most exciting aspects of our program,? said Van Hook. A panel of international students and students who have returned from study abroad will discuss ?Cultural Differences and Climate.? In organizing the panel, Van Hook learned how students lived with far less when they were abroad, and heard the observations of international students who find that the American way of life is excessive compared to their homelands. The panel is scheduled from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium.

At 8 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium, Goodell will speak.

On Friday, Feb. 1, Skidmore students will be able to learn more by visiting an information exchange in the Murray Aiken conference rooms (second floor of the dining hall) before registering their vote for the top national climate priorities.

FTN is taking place shortly before Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, when presidential primary contests will take place in 22 states. The hope is that primary voters will chose the candidate with the best understanding about and commitment to climate solutions, according to Sue Van Hook, senior teaching associate in biology and campus liaison for FTN. Skidmore?s FTN events are free and open to the public.