â??The politicians are jumping on it like itâ??s sliced bread, but there is nothing new about it. The moon shiners used to do it, but itâ??s a dumb idea.â?

In an attempt to educate students about global warming, Wisconsin Secretary of the State Doug LaFollette visited the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus Monday, Jan. 29.

Before the viewing of Al Gore“s “Inconvenient Truth” in the Union Theatre, LaFollette said there are four different kinds of people: those who aren“t aware of the problem, those who are aware of the problem but don“t believe it, those who accept it as reality but don“t do anything and those who are concerned but don“t know what to do about it.

LaFollette talked about how he worked with former U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson to organize the first Earth Day in 1970. Since then he has used his vacation to do what he calls his “professor gigs” to inform the public about global warming.

LaFollette said that in order to help solve the problem, people need to be more efficient, conserve more and use alternative fuels.

But LaFollette said using ethanol was not one of the ways to solve the problem.

“The politicians are jumping on it like it“s sliced bread, but there is nothing new about it,” LaFollette said. “The moon shiners used to do it, but it“s a dumb idea.”

He said through the process of driving tractors, cooking, drying and distilling the corn, “It probably takes about as much oil to get the oil as it takes to get out of it.”

He then added, “We subsidize it with millions to make it profitable.”

Not everyone agrees, however, about the use of ethanol.

“There hasn“t been clear data to settle that question,” Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton said in a phone interview.

Lawton said one of the strategies Wisconsin has for helping reduce climate change is to provide $30 million in grants, loans and tax credits to increase the number of ethanol pumps in the state.

If clear data was released saying that ethanol was more harmful for the environment than helpful, “We would obviously have to revamp the policy,” Lawton said.

While the two disagree on the science behind ethanol, they agree on the science behind global warming.

“The science argument is absolutely sound,” Lawton said. “It is now a fact of our lives.”

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