Exeter, NH (January 31, 2008)—This year’s Green Cup Challenge at Phillips Exeter Academy offers greater opportunities to learn about global warming with a weekly film and speaker series, all of which are free and open to the public.

The film series, which kicked off this week, addresses raising awareness about sustainability; the U.S. subsidized farm industry; the life and death General Motors’ electric car; and the influence of a powerful corporation on governments, the media and consumers on global warming. Each film during the month-long challenge will be shown Tuesdays at 7 p.m. during the month-long challenge in the Assembly Hall, located in the Academy Building on Front Street. Doors will open at 6:45 p.m.

The weekly speaker series varies from individuals to panels of sustainability experts who address their efforts and opportunities to fight global warming. A scientist, politician and authors, researchers and management consultants each will discuss and answer questions from the audience on climate change. These events will be held at various places, each Thursday at 7 p.m. during the Challenge, and are free and open to the public.

Movie Series – Tuesday nights; doors open at 6:45 p.m. 
  
February 5 – KING CORN is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.


February 12 – WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? So why did General Motors crush its fleet of EV1 electric vehicles in the Arizona desert? Who Killed the Electric Car? chronicles the life and mysterious death of the GM EV1.


February 19 – OUT OF BALANCE shows the influence that the largest company in the world has on governments, the media and citizens, and what can be done about global warming.


Speaker Series – Thursday nights; doors open at 6:45 p.m.; events are scheduled from 7–8:30 p.m.

January 31 – “Focus the Nation” Panel Discussion—a roundtable meeting held in the Assembly Hall, with local politicians, scientists and sustainability experts discussing global warming and strategies to fight it. Panelists include: State Senator Maggie Hassan; University of New Hampshire Research Scientist Cameron Wake; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official John Moskal; Clean Air # Cool Planet executive, Roger Stephenson; and Kurt Ehrenberg, with the New Hampshire Sierra Club. Participants will discuss their organizations’ involvement and activities in fighting global warming. The discussion will serve as an opportunity to raise awareness, generate solutions and solicit ideas from students and the community. Afterwards, the panel will take audience questions.

February 7 – “Second Nature” – Georges Dyer ’96 Senior Fellow at Second Nature and a Trustee of Stratleade Sustainability Education; and Michelle McKay, Senior Fellow at Second Nature, an Expert Advisor for the Green Schools Alliance and a volunteer for Stratleade Sustainability Education.

Second Nature has worked with more than 4,000 faculty and administrators at more than 500 colleges and universities to help make the principles of sustainability the foundation of all learning, practice and collaboration with local communities. The event will be held in the Academy Center Forum.

February 14 – Chad Kister—author and filmmaker will speak on global warming and his books Arctic Quest: Odyssey Through a Threatened Wilderness Area, a 700-mile journey by foot and raft, living off roots, berries and greens through The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the need to protect it from oil drilling; Arctic Melting: How Climate Change is Destroying One of the World’s Largest Wilderness Areas, the horrific impacts of climate change on the Arctic and Alaska, and what we can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and Against All Odds: The Struggle to Save The Ridges.

Kister is also the producer of Caribou People, a film about the need to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska, and the Porcupine Caribou herd that is the source of life for the Gwich'in and Inupiat peoples. These tribes are known to be some of the last First Nations cultures on earth, still living principally off the land. The event will be held in the Academy Center Forum, located on Tan lane.

February 21 – PEA Faculty Panel Roundtable on “How Global Warming Affects All Aspects of Society – Economic, Religious, Health and Social Justice.” Science, history, health and religion faculty will address the science of global warming; a brief history of climate change; global warming as a human health issue; religion and global warming; and the economics of global warming. The event will be held in the Assembly Hall. 

For further information, call PEA Sustainability Coordinator Jennifer Wilhelm at (603) 777-3765. A complete list of upcoming events is available on the Phillips Exeter Academy public events line at (603) 777-4309 and on our website at http://www.exeter.edu/. For directions to Phillips Exeter Academy, call (603) 777-4330.

Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory school that was founded in 1781 and originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, a Phillips Exeter Academy education will now be free to any admitted student whose family income is $75,000 or less. Committed to educational excellence, the school meets all demonstrated financial aid needs of its admitted students, making the Academy effectively “need blind.” The diverse student body comes from a wide variety of geographic, economic, racial and religious backgrounds approximately from 45 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and 23 foreign countries.