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Lafayette Environmental Awareness and Protection (LEAP) will host “A Different Kind of Green: Nader and Cobb,” the second of two Wednesday brown bags, 12:15 p.m. today in Gagnon Lecture Hall, Hugel Science Center room 100.
Free pizza will be provided at the brown bag, one of many election-related events organized this fall, including tonight’s debate and yesterday’s day-long mock election and Election Extravaganza. Many of these events have been organized in conjunction with Holla Back, Your Voice Your Vote, a coalition of students and organizations committed to creating an informed voting community.
Since neither independent Ralph Nader nor Green Party nominee David Cobb accept corporate sponsorship, and both candidates are more concerned with less prominent issues, LEAP hopes to inform students and staff about Nader’s Independent Party and Cobb’s Green Party.
“Ralph Nader’s environmental legacy is long and complex,” says organizer Michael Werner ’07 (Neenah, Wis.), a double major in biology and geology. “His one hundred-plus citizen groups are responsible for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air and Water Acts, amongst countless other reforms. He has received harsh scrutiny for his controversial role in the 2000 election by ‘stealing’ votes from Gore and contributing to Bush’s victory. For this reason, many of his former followers, including Michael Moore and even his 2000 vice president running mate, Winona LaDuke, encouraged him not to run in 2004.”
The discussion also will cover the role of third parties in presidential elections and the “spoiler” effect.
Last Wednesday, as part of Energy Independence Day, the anniversary of the first wind generator, LEAP hosted a discussion on “Environmental Issues in Election 2004.” Along with informing students about the presidential candidates’ stances on environmental issues, the discussion included topics such as global warming, pollution, and renewable energy.
The main theme of the discussion was the environment’s importance as a critical issue among more prominent issues considered when voting for a candidate.
Concerned with issues such as global warming and the United States’ inability to “wean itself from its thirst for oil,” LEAP members handed out flowers to students who signed the Declaration of Independence from Dirty Energy.