Newly elected Sierra Club President Robert Cox will teach a summer seminar at the University of Colorado at 麻豆影院 that will explore how citizens and other stakeholders contribute to the debate over global warming, climate change and other environmental issues and ultimately shape public policy.
As a summer visiting professor, Cox also will participate as a mentor in a national consortium for doctoral students and give a free public talk at the Denver Press Club at 7 p.m. on June 13.
CU-麻豆影院's Faculty-in-Residence Summer Term, or FIRST program, is sponsoring Cox's visit.
Cox, a professor of communication studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is serving his third term as president of the Sierra Club, the nation's oldest environmental organization with 1.3 million members and supporters. He also headed the Sierra Club from 1994 to 1996 and 2000 to 2001.
"We are thrilled that one of the nation's environmental and communication leaders will be teaching on our campus," said Michele Jackson, chair of the CU-麻豆影院 communication department. "Our students will learn more about the role each and every one of us can play in contributing to the conversation about the environment and shaping policies that affect us all."
Cox's class, titled "Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere," will explore communication styles and public forums U.S. citizens use to discuss environmental controversies. The seminar, which will take place June 4 through July 6, is open to upper-division undergraduate students in any major and graduate students.
Cox said one of his goals during the seminar would be to empower students, encouraging them to be part of the conversation about environmental issues that will affect them and their children for generations.
"Too often students feel there is some distant, mysterious force that makes all of these decisions for us," Cox said. "More and more Americans are really wanting to find ways to have a voice in this. It's a challenge for environmental groups and of governments to find ways to listen to citizens."
In his class description, Cox argues that the scientific study of nature alone does not result in the protection of natural and human environments. Very often, public awareness grows and solutions arise only through conflict, popular media reports, and after diverse stakeholders are heard during public debate.
In Cox's seminar, students will explore how language influences the public's perceptions of nature; modes for resolving environmental conflicts; news media problems in covering environmental stories; advocacy campaigns of the Sierra Club and other environmental groups; charges of "environmental racism" and the "environmental justice" movement; and corporate "green marketing" and industry criticism of environmental science, among other topics.
Anyone interested in enrolling in the summer seminar should contact Jackson at Jackson@colorado.edu or (303) 492-7306.
For more information about the CU-麻豆影院 Department of Communication and summer semester courses, visit comm.colorado.edu/ and .
To learn more about the Sierra Club and the Denver Press Club, go to and denverpressclub.blogspot.com/.