Fredonia attends Powershift summit

While SUNY Fredonia was in the midst of Earth Week, several students made the trek to the University at Buffalo (UB) for environmental training.

Students at Fredonia attended Powershift NY along with students from other New York State schools from April 16 - 18 at UB.

Powershift began as a national conference in Washington D.C. to promote a political shift towards proletariat grassroots activism and a shift in the way energy is produced. Fredonia students attended last year in Washington and then brought the movement from Washington back to New York. Members of the Fredonia DEA (Department of Environmental Affairs) organized the conference in cohesion with other schools such as SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Geneseo, Alfred University, Ithaca and Cornell.

Students who attended Powershift felt the event raised awareness on many political and ecological issues.

"When I went to the national Powershift summit last year, I had no idea what I would be exposed to," said junior English major Tara Escudero. "For the first time I thought about where our food comes from, what happens when you flick on a light switch and what I could do about it."

The New York State conference took place for three days and focused on activism and education. Many workshops were put on focusing on a number of different issues such as education, ecology, green careers/lifestyles and sustainability on campus.

On April 16, students from participating schools took part in a protest in order to raise awareness of hydrofracking in Allegheny State Park. Hydrofracking is a process in which water is forced into bedrock in order to extract natural gas and oil. Concerns have been raised over the hyrdrofracking process due to chemicals and sand that is forced into the Earth.

The protest made the Buffalo News the next morning and brought additional awareness to hydrofracking concerns.

Students also gave presentations of their own at different panels. The conference featured keynote speakers such as Lois Gibbs, who gave the Convocation address at Fredonia last Thursday on the affects of Love Canal. on Niagara Falls. Gibbs' focus at Powershift was about PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) which has been recently linked to health concerns.

Other speakers included Dominic Frongillo, a young New York politician and graduate from Cornell, and Walter Simpson, a well known environmentalist activist in Buffalo.