Celebrities discuss their role in helping environment

“Save bats, break wind,” was the message sprawled across Batman’s cape as he scurried into the… “Save bats, break wind,” was the message sprawled across Batman’s cape as he scurried into the Pennsylvania Room of the Pittsburgh Athletic Association on Wednesday evening.

The Caped Crusader soon revealed himself to be Don Hopey, The Society of Environmental Journalists Board Conference chair and environmental reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Hopey explained that 4,000 bats in West Virginia have recently been killed in windmills, and that he believes something needs to be done to save them.

The SEJ’s annual conference is being held at Carnegie Mellon University this week. The organization was founded in 1990 for working journalists dedicated to improving the quality, accuracy and visibility of environmental news reporting. It is composed of more than 1,500 members including professional journalists, educators and students.

The conference began with a panel discussion titled “Celebrities, the Media and the Environment.” Panelists included former Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris, Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institution Myron Ebell, Senior Vice President and Executive Director for Environmental Leadership in Business at Conservation International Glen Prickett and actor Ted Danson. The discussion was moderated by Andrew Revkin, an environmental reporter for The New York Times.

Revkin began the discussion by acknowledging that environmental issues are much more subtle than many other causes in our society.

“High profile celebrities use their position to call attention to causes that might not have gotten any,” Hopey said.

Prickett also shares the belief that celebrities help people get involved in environmental issues. He said that Harrison Ford serves on his company’s board of directors and although he does not want to be a spokesman, he can occasionally be talked into it.

“Celebrities open up new audiences to issues in our society,” Prickett said.

Prickett added that celebrities are leaders who earn people’s trust. He said celebrities have the ability to get people to do things they wouldn’t normally do.

“I used to run on artificial turf, and I’m pissed off,” said Franco Harris, when asked why he became involved in environmental issues.

Harris discussed his belief that people should become involved in environmental issues at an early age.

“I played ball here and breathed the same air that other people did, although I’m sure I was gasping for breath more,” said Harris, when discussing the former air quality of Pittsburgh.

Danson said that he enjoys using his celebrity status to promote causes that he believes in. He said that being a celebrity is like being a 5-year-old kid in a room with only adults who are all paying attention to the child.

“I’m the red flag that waves, that gets your attention on a subject,” Danson said.

He told the audience that it is most successful to “carve out your niche, where you think you can do the best.”

Teresa Heinz-Kerry paid the audience a brief, unexpected visit.

“Pittsburgh is a great story of what’s happened in the last 10 years,” she said. “When people get together and they push the envelope, things go beyond the norm.”