Brown and White Vol. 124 no. 20

              Vol. 124 No. 20
Friday, April 12, 2013
‘All the Lehigh News First’
THE BROWN AND WHITE
Lehigh University’s Student Newspaper Founded in 1894
SPORTS
Crew team heads to Camden, N.J.
Page 11
ONLINE
Take our online poll
Do you believe in global warming?
Confessions, crushes capitvate campus
Page 5
LIFESTYLE
‘We know what we need to do’
B&W photo by CHRIS BARRY
Bill McKibben, a journalist and one of the leading activists for global climate change, addresses a group of Lehigh students and faculty, as well as Lehigh Valley community members.
By DANIELLE DiSTEFANO
The Friends of Lehigh Libraries Speaker Series welcomed environmental activist, au­thor, educator and journalist Bill McKibben to Lehigh on Tuesday, where he presented a lecture on global climate change.
The lecture was held in Baker Hall, which was filled with students, faculty and staff in anticipation of the highly regarded speaker who is most recently known for his foundation of the worldwide campaign for climate change, 350.org.
McKibben began his lecture by explain­ing that in spite of people’s views, he has a pessimistic view of the Earth’s future. He said that he prefers to see himself as a “pro­fessional bummer-outer.” The current pace and scale of the Earth’s climate problems are dictating how quickly we, as the inhabit­ants and perpetrators of these issues, will have to deal with them, he said.
“We knew 20 years ago that the Earth was warming, but we never expected it would happen this fast,” McKibben said.
One of the most significant problems that the planet has experienced is an overall temperature increase of one degree Fahren­heit, which sounds trivial but has caused ma­jor changes to the way the climate functions. For example, the Southwest of the United States has entered its third year of a serious drought, while Argentina had the heaviest rainfall ever recorded—a “tsunami of rain,” as McKibben said. Meanwhile, natural di­sasters like Hurricane Sandy caused signifi­cant damage from New York to Haiti.
“It drove the Atlantic Ocean into the New York City subways,” McKibben said. “It just shows the fragility of our civilization.”
The main point of the first part of his lecture was to explain the effects of global warming and show that by the time this gen­eration becomes elderly, “there’s no reason that [the Earth] should be able to withstand the predicted increase of four or five degrees Fahrenheit.”
McKibben clarified that some of the damage that’s been done is irreversible, but it shouldn’t stop citizens from being
Students feel connected after lecture on Arab Jews
By SCOTT PAPAPIETRO
The Friends of Israel Club and The Dia­logue Center hosted a special presentation Monday by Joseph Braude, who spoke on behalf of the Jews indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa organization.
Braude’s presentation, “Jews in the Arab World Today: A Field Report from North Africa and the Arabian Gulf,” offered a unique view on current political issues of the Middle East, including his personal history. He emphasized the challenges that living in the Middle East Jews have faced throughout the course of their history, along with new opportunities that have surfaced.
“Anytime there’s a part of history that’s been suppressed, it needs to be reopened,” said Braude.
Braude also shared his history, as the son of an Iraqi-Jewish mother who was among the hundreds of thousands of Jews that were forced to flee Arab lands in the mid-twentieth century. His mother’s family left Baghdad when she was five years old.
“It was a musical, rabbinic family - a family that still loves Iraq,” said Braude.
Braude, fluent in both Arabic and Farsi, has lived in almost every Arab capital, as well as lived in Iran, and is the only West­erner to ever be embedded with an Arab security apparatus.
“For nearly 20 years now, I have been traveling through these countries as a re­porter, writing about the politics of these countries,” Braude said.
Braude frequently appears on televi­sion stations throughout the Middle East
LipDub kicks off Unity Week, ‘unites campus’
See McKIBBEN Page 3
By ZARA RUSTOMJI
To kick off Lehigh’s annual Unity Week, the Student Senate organized a Lehigh LipDub last Sunday, which started at Linderman Library and ended at the flagpole on the University Center Front Lawn.
“Lehigh LipDub has always been a way of bringing the campus together in the spring for a fun event that films a song throughout campus,” said Tif­fany Kuperschmidt, ’14, a member of Student Senate. “This year, we decided to partner with Unity Week to incor­porate the two events and make this as a kick off to Unity Week. We hope to bring people from all different groups at Lehigh together to create a cool video that showcases some of the stu­dents’ favorite buildings.”
The songs this year were “Thrift Shop” by Mackelmore; “I Knew You Were Trouble” by Taylor Swift; and “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind. The participants included mem­bers from the Lehigh Dance Team, Film Club, sororities, fraternities and several other clubs and organizations.
“We did LipDub as a team two years ago and had such a blast,” said Daria Holm, ’13, captain of the Lehigh Dance Team. “We’re a bunch of goof­balls and love to dance and sing, and we are so happy that at LipDub we can dance and sing not just with girls on our team but with people from so many other organizations. That to me is just awesome.” Holm also indicated the team’s excitement to watch the final product on YouTube, describing it as a great promotion for the dance team.
The Lehigh Dance Team started the LipDub in Linderman and passed it on to students outside.
“I was just studying in the library like any other Sunday afternoon when I suddenly saw a bunch of people dancing and singing,” said Amy Ro­land, ’15. “I was not sure what was going on, but I knew that I wanted to be a part of it. I was too shy to be in the video, but even as a spectator I was feeding off of the energy of the group. I had so much fun. It was definitely not your average mundane Sunday. I left the event feeling such a sense of school spirit. It really made my day.”
This is the first year that LipDub was at the start of Unity Week.
“LipDub is the perfect way to start off Unity Week because it brings to­See
LIPDUB Page 2
See BRAUDE Page 3