As students, faculty and community members gathered in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union Thursday night for a forum on global warming, energy usage and the economy, a large NASA photograph of the earth served as a silent introduction to the discussion.

“I like this photograph of the earth because it shows that it’s a green planet, a blue planet and a white planet,” said Gene Takle, professor and interim director of geological and atmospheric sciences, when the forum began shortly after 7 p.m.

Takle said the blue and white in the photograph show the varying forms of water that exist on the planet earth, giving it “a special range of temperature” that is hospitable to life.

He then proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes or so presenting data that indicate a threat to that “special range of temperature.”

The information-dense forum was part of a nationwide project called “Focus the Nation” which seeks to educate the public on global warming and climate change.

Takle flipped through slides showing trends that are recognizable to many at this point – the off-the-chart amounts of carbon dioxide and rising temperatures.

“We each probably account for about 20 tons of C02 emissions [annually],” Takle said, suggesting members of the audience ask themselves how to “get rid of [your] 20 tons this year.”

But Takle also admitted the country is “already committed to warming,” saying a relevant theme of discussion should be to ask what to do with the already-changing climate.

“Even if we take heroic steps to combat global warming, we are not going to feel that for another fifty years,” Takle said.

In the question-and-answer section of the discussion, Takle was asked how climate change would affect the polar ice cap, to which he responded that the cap appears to be melting fast enough to be eliminated entirely before 2100.

He said global warming creates a “positive feedback” cycle of melting ice, which creates more water, which absorbs more energy, which melts more ice, and so on.

“People are really going to be watching what’s going to happen this present year,” Takle said.

John Miranowski, professor of economics, began his speech by asking the audience three questions: How many of them believed greenhouse gases were increasing rapidly; how many would be willing to pay something to help reduce emissions; and how many would be willing to pay a lot to reduce emissions – for which, unlike the first two, almost no one raised their hand.

Miranowski spoke about the economic costs and benefits related to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saying there would not be one “silver bullet” solution and any solution would be costly. He also said he was more in favor of market-based solutions rather than taxes or subsidies.

“There’s a higher degree of uncertainty on added benefits and costs of taking action [concerning climate change],” Miranowski said, but he concluded his segment of the evening by saying that there is a much larger degree of risk associated with not taking action.

Vikram Dalal, professor of electrical and computer engineering, closed the forum with a presentation about energy usage and alternatives such as solar power. He pointed out that there are other countries in the world, such as Japan, that are more energy-efficient in one way or another. The Japanese modern Hitachi power plant – Dalal told the audience – is the highest-efficiency plant in the world.

“If Japan can do it, why not the U.S. and China?” Dalal said.

Dalal pointed out other elements of global energy consumption, speaking of the “already huge” solar industry, which he said is responsible for more solar plants being produced today than nuclear plants.