The News-Gazette.com: New UI institute aims to combat global warming

On a stop-over in London several years ago, lawyer and University of Illinois graduate Joel Friedman started reading a book about global warming.

"By the time I got done reading the book I was in a panic," he said.

The more he read, the more concerned he became, and the more he wanted to do something.

"Who's going to find solutions?" Friedman had asked. Industry? Think-tanks?

The answer may be the UI, with scholars from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; the College of Business; and the College of Law, Friedman said. The university, he said, is a place with "a great pool of knowledge" and unbiased researchers.

The new Environmental Change Institute, http://eci.illinois.edu, will explore ways to mitigate global warming and how the world can adapt to it.

The Alvin H. Baum Family Fund, of which Friedman is president, has pledged $300,000 a year for three years for the institute. And the three colleges also have pledged a total of $120,000 for each of those three years.