Media Credit: Courtesy Members of Rising Tide North America protested at an Oct. 20 yacht tour kickoff for a timber plantations and forest biotechnology conference co-sponsored by ArborGen, which "leads the world in research into genetically engineered trees," according to Rising Tide's Web site. The banner reads "ArborGen: No GE Trees or Plantations in US South or Brazil." [Click to enlarge]

Monica Vaughan, a University graduate student, is looking at the global climate change issue through a different perspective. She and others working for the Rising Tide North America organization, which will speak today at 4 p.m. in 150 Columbia, believe the root of the climate change problem lies in colonization and globalization. The group believes combating these social issues will lead the fight against global warming.

Vaughan said the theory of carbon offset, which can involve emissions trading, isn't enough. A climate neutral campus is one of the proposed uses for the ASUO surplus funds.

Carbon offset involves neutralizing a person or organization's carbon emissions, which are harmful to the environment and are contributing to global warming. This can include emissions trading, where companies trade permits needed to emit pollutants through market transactions, according to the International Emissions Trading Association.

"As we saw with Hurricane Katrina, the people who are most disenfranchised are going to have to deal with the effects more," said Vaughan, who added the corporations consume the most energy, not the people who are suffering the repercussions.

Rising Tide, founded in the Netherlands in 2000, is an international grassroots network working to confront the root causes of global warming by focusing on communities and their abilities to find solutions to the climate crisis, according to the Web site.

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