By COLIN HICKEY, Staff Writer Tuesday, April 24, 2007

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Staff photo by Jeff Pouland CLIMATE CHANGE: Sara Lovitz from the Natural Resources Council of Maine gives a presentation at a forum titled ``Climate Change in Maine'' at Messalonskee High School in Oakland on Saturday.

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"I lived three blocks away," she said, "and I used to get rides to school and later when I got my (driver's) license I'd pick up my sister and give her rides."

Today, 10 years out of high school, Lovitz works for the Natural Resources Council of Maine as its clean-energy outreach coordinator.

Once she moves into her new home in Belgrade, she plans to buy a road bike so she can pedal -- at least occasionally -- the 20 miles to her Augusta office.

On Saturday she was one of the speakers at a central Maine forum -- organized by Rep. Jill Conover, D-Oakland -- on "Climate Change in Maine" at Messalonskee High School in Oakland.

Lovitz also is one of 1,000 people nationwide who took part in the "Climate Project" initiated by former Vice President Al Gore. The Climate Project is aimed at educating the public on the issue of global warming.

She has become, both professionally and personally, committed to raising awareness of what she said has become a consensus in the scientific community that global climate change is occurring -- and that mankind is to blame by continuing to increase carbon dioxide emissions.

"Sara is doing a wonderful job," said Colby College economics professor Thomas Tietenberg. "She is passionate about what she is doing, and she is doing an extraordinary job."

Tietenberg, who has extensively studied climate change and global warming, had Lovitz as a student for his course on environmental and natural resources economics.

Lovitz, who graduated from Colby with a degree in chemistry, said Tietenberg's class is one reason she went on to obtain a master's degree in natural resources planning from the University of Vermont's School of Environment and Natural Resources.

With the Natural Resources Council, Lovitz also is involved in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an effort by nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants -- a public hearing on the initiative is slated for 1 p.m. today in front of the Utilities & Energy and Natural Resources committees at the Statehouse.

Tietenberg said awareness of climate change concerns has grown tremendously among students at Colby in the past 10 years.

"Students are very committed," he said. "They think about this all the time."

Tietenberg said some students have taken steps "to reduce their ecological footprint on the planet" by cutting back on their generation of carbon dioxide emissions.

Lovitz said her goal is to convince the general public to do the same.

During her Climate Project training in Nashville, Tenn., Lovitz said, she and the rest of her class of 200 spent the entire first day with Gore, discussing his slide show on global climate change.

Lovitz said the level of engagement between Gore and trainees was amazing.

"It was very clear," she said, "that we would have been there for weeks if we had been allowed to keep asking questions and making comments."

Lovitz said in her presentations on climate change she has yet to meet people who dispute that global warming is happening.

Instead, she said, most people seem to have taken the next step.

"In most communities, people want to know what they can do about it," she said.

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com