Conference in Pittsburgh Addresses Global Warming Efforts

A local advocacy group is hoping to build awareness and drum up support this weekend when it hosts its annual summit. The “Clean Energy for a Cool Pittsburgh” conference run by PennFuture kicks off Sunday at 1:00pm on the Duquesne University campus with a long list of speakers. Among them will be the former Secretary of the PA DEP, the head of a group called Fossil Free Fuel and US Congressman Mike Doyle.

PennFuture Vice President Heather Sage says the goal of the event is clear, “Helping people understand that changing how and what kind of energy we use is the single most important thing that we can do as citizens to combat global warming and to clean up air quality here in Pittsburgh.” Speakers will touch on a variety of topics including sustainable architecture, transportation solutions, and efforts underway at the federal level to bring about policy change.

Sage says they will be educating people and trying to get them involved. “PennFuture is an advocacy organization and we have a number of campaigns that we are running including the ‘Breath Easy, Stay Healthy’ campaign and our ‘Black and Gold City Goes Green’ campaign where we offer citizens lots of options to get involved both on the policy side and in more practical ways at home,” says Sage.

The conference is open to the public. It is free for students and PennFuture members and $10 for others. You can sign up at the PennFuture website.