This Thursday, January 31, over 1,600 high school, college and university campuses nationwide will participate in Focus The Nation Day, a nationwide teach-in on Global Warming. Please see http://focusthenation.org/ to get an idea of this phenomenon that's sweeping the country!

Cal State L.A.'s participation, sponsored by Associated Students as well as by the campus chapters of Earth L.A. and The Humanist Association, will take the form of a day-long series of discussions, roundtables, lectures and videos, all on the broader topic of Sustainability. At Cal State L.A., we are going back to first principles and asking questions not only about climate change, but also about the most basic human needs and rights and the best ways of meeting those needs and sharing resources in a planet-friendly way. A diverse selection of CSULA instructors from all disciplines will be on hand to try to find some answers to these questions, together with interested staff members and students. Outside speakers have also been invited, including local politicians and activists from The Bus Riders Union and Office of the Americas. (At the time of this writing it was not clear whether Blase Bonpane had been confirmed.)

This event will take place on the Cal State L.A. campus on Thursday, January 31, 2008, in the third-floor ballroom of the Golden Eagle building, from 9:50 AM to 7:50 PM.

Together, we hope to create a culture of sustainability. We hope to tape the entire event and put it on YouTube so that people in the future may benefit from this "library" of thinkers, speakers and doers.

SOS! We still need help! We need camera operators in shifts for the entire day, so that we won't have to lose a single inspiring moment! If you have the skills to help us with this, please contact jramir24@calstatela.edu or call (562) 208-7370.

Why Cal State L.A.? Well, let's not forget that our campus was one of the first places to produce a completely solar-powered racing car. Two prototypes are now on display in the Library and the Engineering Building, but hopefully they will have many "descendants"!

To see a map of the campus and parking lots, please go to
http://www.calstatela.edu/univ/maps/cslamap.htm

For a schedule of the day's discussions, please go to
http://earthla.com/focusthenation.html

For the most up-to-date information, please leave a message at jramir24@calstatela.edu, or (562) 208-7370.

See you there! Tom