Visionary College President Stephen Mulkey Puts Higher Education on Notice Over Climate Change

UNITY, Maine, Jan. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Visionary Unity College President Stephen Mulkey has put higher education on notice over climate change: stand up and do what you know is right.

Mulkey's message is pointedly focused on calling out those within higher education who have remained silent about the developing global disaster of climate change, uncritically siding with conventional wisdom and political dictates, while enjoying the largess of life on manicured college campuses. He demands more of scientists, educators, and higher education as a system than to sit idly by while those with a stake in the organized denial of climate change are allowed to profit with virtual impunity at an incalculable cost to humanity.

An investment in fossil fuels for short term profits is not a smart investment, Mulkey says.  For every dollar generated by investments in fossil fuels, many more dollars will be required to mitigate the damage done from man caused climate change, or to clean up from weather events like Hurricane Sandy.

Mulkey will soon join the ranks of luminaries such as Thomas Friedman, Pulitzer Prize winning author and New York Times Columnist; former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev; and a variety of heads of state who will participate in one of the most heralded conferences in the developing world.  He will serve as a presenter at the 13^th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit.

The summit will address the global challenge of resource-efficient and low carbon development and will take place from January 31 – February 2, 2013, at the Hotel Taj Palace in New Delhi, India.  The event will also explore the diverse dimensions of promoting resource-efficient development and attempt to strengthen the global momentum for green growth as raised at the Rio+20 Conference.

Mulkey's presentation will appear on day three of the conference, February 2, when he will serve on a panel considering sustainable development and a new knowledge economy.

In December, 2012, Unity College became the first college in the United States to divest from investments in fossil fuels.  The move touched off a growing nationwide movement on college and university campuses.

SOURCE Unity College