Harnessing the Power of Wind to Turn the Tide of Global Warming, Talk October 3

Chestertown, MD, September 25, 2006 — Can wind powered generators help to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and mitigate the effects of global climate change? On Tuesday, October 3, Washington College's McLain Program in Environmental Studies hosts environmental planner and college alumna, Angela Crenshaw, speaking on "The Case for Wind Power: A Possible Source of Mitigation for Climate Change." The talk will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Litrenta Lecture Hall, John S. Toll Science Center.

Crenshaw will examine the potential role wind energy technologies can have on lessening the impacts of climate change. The majority of the global population relies completely on fossil fuels for energy and transportation. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, there has been a sharp rise in the use of fossil fuels, which release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the troposphere causing global warming or climate change to occur. Alternative and renewable sources of energy such as wind power, Crenshaw believes, can help reverse this trend and reduce the harmful effects of fossil fuels on humans and the environment.

A 2004 alumna of Washington College, Crenshaw graduated magna cum laude with a double major in environmental studies and economics, receiving the Environmental Studies Award and the college's highest honor, the George Washington Medal. While a student, she was a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa leadership honor society and the Douglass Cater Society of Junior Fellows, as well as the Black Student Union, Cleopatra's Daughters, Student Government Association, Student Environmental Alliance, and the Washington College Diversity Planning Task Force.

In 2006, she received a master's degree in energy and environmental policy from the University of Delaware. She is currently employed as an environmental planner by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Air Management Association (MAMRA), an organization of 10 state and local air pollution control agencies joined in the mission to strengthen the skills and capabilities of member agencies and to work together to prevent and reduce air pollution in the Mid-Atlantic Region, an area that faces some of the most difficult and severe air quality problems in the nation.

Sponsored by the McLain Program in Environmental Studies, the lecture is free and open to the public.