Lackawanna College’s Environmental Institute will host a seminar on global warming on September 25, at 7 p.m. in the college’s Student Union, located at 500 Jefferson Avenue in Scranton.

The evening’s speaker will be Lance Simmens, a representative for The Climate Project, an organization founded by former Vice President Al Gore seeking to mobilize public action to address the global warming issue, and serves as a special assistant to Gov. Ed Rendell.

Simmens will give an hour-long presentation adapted from the award-winning documentary film, “An Inconvenient Truth.” The presentation is intended to appeal to the average citizen and is not political in nature. It is a call to action, focusing on practical solutions.

Simmens has spent the last three decades involved in a variety of public policy issues having served 22 years in Washington, DC, working in senior policy positions in two Administrations, six years on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and six years as Assistant Executive Director for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

In his current position, Simmens functions as liaison to local governments and local elected officials and also plays an integral role in the development of wind energy policies for the state.

He helped establish the first Federal Office of Sustainable Development in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1993 and was honored by the U.S. Department of Commerce for his pioneering work in sustainable fisheries initiatives in New England and the Pacific Northwest.

The Environmental Institute is a research and teaching arm of Lackawanna College which offers environmental education programs to schools, municipalities, businesses, and to the general public.

For more information on the seminar, contact the Lackawanna College Environmental Institute at 570-842-1560, or send email to: email hatalaj@lackawanna.edu.

8/31/2007