Western Front - 2008 April 15

              NEWS
New Brewery hits
Bellingham
» page 8
ART&LlFE
Dalai Lama speaks
about compassion
» page 10
PIPIP^TPI^H'
IP1RHH
OPINION
Boycott Beijing
Olympics
» page 15
SPORTS 1
Lacrosse club trounces M
competition H
» page 19 B
l\iesday, April 15,2008
AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SINCE 1970.
Issue 4 I Vol. 146 westernfrontonIine.net
Campus group unveils higfi-mileage car
Jeremy Schwartz
THE WESTERN FRONT
With safety glasses perched
atop his forehead, Ben Vos,
Western senior and project lead­er
of the Viking 40 prototype,
discussed the details of the car's
chassis with his fellow students
on the project team in the Ross
Engineering Technology Build­ing.
The public got their first
glimpse of the.Viking 40 when
it was unveiled Saturday at the
NASA Ames Research Center in
Mountain View, Calif., Vos said
The car, is being developed
by Western's Vehicle Research
Institute (VRI) to be entered
into the 2008 Progressive Auto­motive
X Prize, Vos said.
The Automotive X Prize,
the first of its kind, will award
$10 million to the university or
private company that can build
an economically viable car that
gets 100 miles per gallon or bet­ter.
"[Viking 40] needs to be
street legal in every sense with
bumpers and crash safety equip­ment,
and meet current emis­sions
standards," Vos said.
The unveiling was part of a
larger event called Yuri's Night
Bay Area 2008 celebrating both
photo courtesy of Ben Vos
Visitors at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View Calif, view the Viking 40 prototype, a car developed
by Western's Vehicle Research Institute, on Saturday. .
the first human in space 47 years
ago and NASA's 50th anniver­sary;
Vos said.
Western senior Drew
Wohlenhaus, who is currently
working as an intern at the Ames
Research Center, said he made
it possible for the VRI to attend
Yuri's Night. .
The theme of this year's
Yuri's Night celebration was
technology built to conserve
natural resources, Wohlenhaus
said.
The Organizers gave Viking
40 a place in the event because
it is ah appropriate example of
such technology, he said.
The Yuri's Night celebra­tion,
with approximately 8,000
people in attendance, is the big­gest
event at which the VRI has
been present, Wohlenhaus said.
Vos said the VRI heard
about the Automotive X Prize
three years ago and has been
working on Viking 40 since.
The prototype is built around
a normal gasoline:engine, but the
actual entry into the X Prize will
be powered by a gasoline engine
linked to an electric motor, Vos
said.
He said Viking 40 weighs
only 1100 pounds and will pro­duce
220 horsepower. •'"]
' _ The lightweight Viking 40
will produce acceleration close
to that of top-o'f-the-line sports
cars like- the 430-hofsepbwer,
3,132-pound Chevrolet Cor­vette,
he said.
"We didn't have to, but be-see
PROTOTYPE page 4 •
Western
student to give
international
address
Amanda Winters
THE WESTERN FRONT
Not many Western juniors
will make history in their life­time.
But next week, one will.
On April 24, Western junior
Matt Lockett will stand in front
of approximately 7,000 people
and give the first ever youth ad­dress
at the United Methodist
Church general conference in
Fort Worth, Texas.
The youth address was add­ed
to this year's conference so
young adults in the church could
: express their hopes and fears to
church officials.
The conference is held ev­ery
four years and is attended
by every Methodist bishop and
church official worldwide to dis­cuss
events and issues within the
church and the world.
;•:•-'-"" Lockett is one of six young
men and women, aged 15-28,
that will be giving a speech on
their opinions and hopes for the
world and their church
The group includes a 15-
see LOCKETT page 5 •
Huxley alumnus explains Earth's rising temperatures
University of Washington's Climate Impact Group teaches Western students climate change, greenhouse gases from a.Pacific Northwest perspective
Christine Karambelas
THE WESTERN FRONT
Jeremy Littell from the
University of Washington's Cli­mate
Impact Group told listeners
weather forecasts call for more
rain and less snow for future win-,
ters in the Pacific Northwest.
» On April 11 in the Cornmu-.
nications Facility, Littell present­ed
"The Interface of Climate Sci­ence,
Management and Policy in
the Pacific Northwest," explain­ing
the effect of climate changes
on the Pacific Northwest and
how people can adapt to climate
change:
Climate Impacts Group ob­serves
climate changes in Wash­ington,
Idaho, Oregon and British
Columbia and how the changes
affect natural resources such as
water, salmon, forests and coasts.
The group helps organizations'
that use these natural. resources
manage arid prepare for changes
caused by shifts in climate.
"With the exception of a very
few scientists outside the main­stream,
there is overwhelming
consensus that climate change is
happening," Huxley College Pro­fessor
Andy Bunn said. "The sci­ence
is moving to asking what the
changes will be and-how we can
adapt to changes."
Littell, a Huxley alumnus,
began his presentation explaining
current and future climate change
on the Pacific Northwest.
Climate changes are occur­ring
because the earth's tempera­ture
is rising because greenhouse
gases are being released into the
atmosphere, he said.
Greenhouse gases are re- *
leased from human and natural
sources, including the-burning of
fossil fuel, deforestation, agricul­tural
practices, energy extraction,
landfills, wetlands, oceans/soils
and decomposition of organic
matter, Littell said.
The Climate Impact Group
has numerous research stations
located across each state, where
scientists have been recording
rising temperatures in the Pacific
Northwest since 1920.
The average annual tempera­ture
in the Pacific Northwest has
risen 0.8 degrees Celsius and it
has been estimated that tempera­tures
could rise 1, to 6 degrees
Celsius by 2100.
Almost every station has
shown that temperatures are
warmer, and there are fewer exr
treme cold conditions, Littell
see CUM ATE page 5 •
' photo taken by Matt Boyec THE WESTERN FRONT
Jeremy S. Littell gives a lecture on climate science in the Pacific
Northwest in Communications Facility 110 oh April . 1 1 . Littell, a
Huxley alumnus, is'a scientist at the Climate Impact Group at the
University of Washington.