National Geographic documentary film, Paris to Pittsburgh, was shown on Oct. 1 in the auditorium of Hawkins-Conard Student Center as a part of the Symposium Against Indifference.

Paris to Pittsburgh is a film about climate change and the movement of American communities who chose to uphold the Paris Climate Agreement after President Trump pulled the country out of the deal.

The film was presented by the College of Arts & Sciences and co-sponsored by the Ashland Center for Nonviolence.

Rodney Michael, Ashland University professor of physics, was an involved audience member and in the panel discussion that followed the film.
“I’ve been interested in climate change for a long time, I’m also on the committee on the symposium for indifference, so we helped sponsor it,” Michael said. “I’ve been interested in the environment since I was a kid.”

The panel consisted of three professors from the university, including Patricia Saunders, associate professor of biology and director of the environmental science program.

“[I was] really, really pleased with how many people were engaged in the discussion and how many people were here. I thought it was a great event,” Saunders said.
Saunders was able to watch the film over the summer, and upon her second viewing noticed a lot more details that she thought would be a great addition to the discussion.

“There was more science in it than I realized the first time I saw it, and I made [a statement] at the beginning of the discussion about how powerful those personal stories were for me,” she said.

Saunders reflected on the Ashland community and how actions like cycling, planting trees or building a prairie benefit the environment more than credited.
“I know that a lot of things individuals and small groups [are doing within the film] would change things with respect to climate change.”

Michael reflected on the green efforts of AU, including an experiment where they installed a solar panel on the library.

“They wanted to see if it would be cost effective and they did this quite a few years ago when solar panels were still very expensive,” Michael said. “At the time it didn’t pan out, but I would wonder if they did it again, if it might not show more benefits now.”

Michael suggested that the university could do more with composting and organic waste. Also that new constructions should look into renewable energy.

The film and discussion panel was a means to inform, as well as a call to action within the campus and community.

Michael said, “It would be great if the students could actually start to make themselves more aware of how important an issue this is.”