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Earth Day founder to speak at UB
By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
Contributing Editor
Denis Hayes, a leading environmental activist, solar-energy expert and organizer of the first Earth Day, is bringing to UB his message about how alternative energy, especially solar power, if aggressively harnessed, can combat some of the dangers of climate change.

Denis Hayes, one of Time magazine’s "Heros of the Planet," will appear at two events at UB, as well as one in downtown Buffalo.
PHOTO: IJO AFTS
Hayes, also known as "Mr. Earth Day" and one of Time magazine's "Heroes of the Planet," will give a talk entitled "Here Comes the Sun: The Solar Solution to Global Climate Change" at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus. The talk will be free and open to the public.
Sponsored by UB Green, the environmental office of University Facilities, the talk will be preceded by a Renewable Energy Fair, beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the lobby of Slee Hall, featuring vendor exhibits of renewable energy products and services.
Hayes also will address a luncheon at noon Tuesday in The Church, 341 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo. His topic will be "Greening Buffalo: Addressing Climate Change While Revitalizing Our Economy."
Marsha S. Henderson, vice president for external affairs, and Richard M. Tobe, commissioner of economic development for the City of Buffalo, representing Mayor Byron Brown, will welcome guests to the public luncheon. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased by contacting the UB Green Office at 829-3535 or ubgreen@facilities.buffalo.edu.
In addition, Hayes will address UB students, faculty and staff on "Dialogue on Campus Climate Neutrality" at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the 330 Student Union.
Hayes' visit to UB and Western New York is a major event during a semester in which the university is celebrating its longstanding leadership among American colleges and universities in reducing energy consumption through extensive and innovative conservation measures, research and teaching, and in promoting alternative energy sources under the theme "A Greener Shade of Blue." Go to http://www.buffalo.edu/greener_ub for more information.
At his evening talk at UB, Hayes will focus on recent breakthroughs in the solar-energy and renewable-energy fields, which, he says, finally are getting the attention they deserve, primarily because of the powerful evidence of climate change.
"With the intense focus on global warming, the inhabitants of the planet are finally beginning to think of themselves as having a shared stake in the Earth's future," says Hayes.
Unfortunately, he adds, that realization is coming rather late for the United States, which squandered a leading role in alternative energy some 20 years ago.
"Although we were the global leaders in every renewable energy technology in the late 1970s, we foolishly abandoned that leadership position in 1981," he says. "Today, despite our great wealth, superb scientific base and entrepreneurial culture, we are not the global leader in any renewable energy technology."
Still, he says, all across America, individual communities are responding to the challenge.
"While Buffalo does not have the rich solar resource of, say, Phoenix, it certainly has sufficient sunlight to make it an attractive option for some of its power," he says. "Buffalo's early investments in wind and ethanol represent an intelligent place to start and its much smaller solar photovoltaic installations will provide operating experience that will be helpful as prices fall and solar energy becomes attractive for a wider variety of applications, even in Buffalo."
Hayes is the president of the Bullitt Foundation, a $100-million charitable foundation located in Seattle and dedicated to protecting the natural environment of the Pacific Northwest. He was national coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970 and is credited with expanding Earth Day to more than 180 nations. He also directed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory during the Carter Administration.
For his environmental work, he has received the highest awards from the Sierra Club, the Humane Society of the United States, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the American Solar Energy Society.