For one week, the efforts of many concerned students, faculty and staff members could change the dominant color on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from red to green.
Today marks the beginning of Focus the Nation, five days of on-campus activities to help people understand what they can do to help the environment and why they should do it.
"The idea is to show that climate isn't this distant, disconnected, ominous thing way off on the horizon - it's this thing that affects us locally," said David Solheim, the president of the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska.
ASUN, the university's office of undergraduate studies, the E.N. Thompson group, the office of Student Affairs and a horde of various faculty, staff and organizations have worked to bring the week-long event to UNL.
"We tend to look at it as a huge issue that no one knows where to start with or what they can do to help," said Cara Waldo, a sophomore political science major and the president of the E.N. Thompson Scholars. "There isn't going to be one decision for everyone to do to change this - there are little steps we can all take."
Although nearly 1,500 other organizations or institutions from coast to coast will also participate in Focus the Nation, Solheim said UNL's efforts are receiving media attention from as far away as Oregon and Massachusetts.
"Our efforts at UNL are pretty extraordinary," he said.
The week starts off tonight with a low-carbon footprint meal at Cather-Pound-Neihart residential hall's dining room. The meal will be "Good Fresh and Local" or GFL, meaning the food isn't shipped or transported from far away, which reduces carbon emissions. Although Dining Services periodically holds these types of meals, this one is in conjunction with the Focus the Nation events.
Other events throughout the week include a broad array of lectures given by professors, a roundtable discussion with two Nebraska State senators and a oral presentation of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." Many of the discussion and lectures will focus on the Midwest and other local environmental discussion instead of the broader discussions many people are familiar with.
"I think one of the unique aspects of (Focus the Nation) is that it's been a collaborative effort of students, faculty and staff and the administration," Waldo said. "It gives the whole thing a dynamic quality. It's something the entire university has decided we need to talk about."
Waldo said the week is an effort by students to draw the attention of other students of the issue facing their generation - mainly climate and environmental issues. The end goal, she said, would be to educate everyone on what issues need awareness and what people can ask their elected representatives to do.
"We want to get this holistic picture all across the nation," said Solheim. "It should be a pretty cool week."
chrisrosacker@dailynebraskan.com
is a member of the 
