“Energy is this thing that drives our whole society and it is everything, but no one really talks about it. It’s kind of complicated,” Master’s student in the Geography Department and is also doing the dual Master’s in Environmental Natural Resources,” Rica Fulton said. “It will be cool to see social justice, law, and geology, which are really the three drivers of our society.”
The lifetime of current energy use and extraction methods are to be discussed at the event “To the Ends of the Earth: Film Screening and Panel Discussion on the Current state of U.S. Energy” hosted by the ENR.
“In an area that is entirely focused on coal and more traditional energy extraction. It’s really important to bring these topics up; especially since the Haub school is gaining momentum and growing and getting more recognized,” president of the ENR club, Mary Grace Bedwell said. “I think it’s important to discuss these kinds of alternatives especially now that people are more interested and willing to talk about them.”
Held at the Berry Center Auditorium Dec. 7 at 5 p.m., this event will include an interdisciplinary panel of experts to discuss the future of energy extraction and use. This panel will be interdisciplinary of four people from different fields.
“I’m really excited about the panelists,” Fulton said. “We have a law person, a geology person, and then some non-profit people that I work with. He [one of the panelists] is actually in the movie and one of them helped. So, it will be fun to see that interdisciplinary mix.”
Panelist Mike Cheadle, a professor at UW, will be weighing in on the credibility of the movie pertaining to science fields.
“I think it’s interesting too with the geologist that ended up agreeing to come because he is the professor from my Hollywood science course,” Bedwell said. “So, he reviews movies about science. That is what our whole course is about. The feasibility, how the science is presented.”
Fulton said rhetoric can twist either in regard to the importance of the discussion panel.
With this presentation the ENR club is hoping to bring to light our dependency on energy production in order to better understand options for future production and sustainability. This will include social justice portions of energy development.
“It [the movie] is about extreme energy production and kind of where the world is at in terms of extracting fossil fuels and oil products from the earth,” Fulton said. “And how dependent our society is on them.”
Energy production will continue to be important. With this movie screening and discussion panel, a topic will be of the feasibility of newer energy resources at the current rate.
“We can talk about the feasibility of, okay maybe we can’t immediately, right now, turn off all reliance on traditional fossil fuels but in the long term maybe this is what is going on and this is why we need to do it,” Bedwell said.
The club hopes to bring in as many people as possible, as energy is of common interest in Wyoming. As energy is a core component of Wyoming’s economy and culture, the sustainability of energy extraction is an essential conversation to have.
