4/14/03

LAND RIGHTS ISSUE HEADLINES AUIE'S EARTH DAY EVENTS

AUBURN -- The Auburn University Environmental Institute will sponsor a debate on private-property rights as part of its Earth Day 2003 activities on April 21.

The debate will focus on whether government regulations that are intended to protect the environment rob individuals of their property rights. There will also be back-to-back environmental seminars presented by AU faculty.

Most of the events will be at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center auditorium.

Earth Day activities will begin at 1 p.m., in ballrooms A and B with poster presentations and exhibits by AU students and faculty on projects related to environmental research, education and outreach.

Debating the property-rights issue, starting at 4:30 p.m., in the auditorium, will be Larry Putt, dean of academic affairs and professor of law at the Thomas Goode Jones School of Law at Faulkner University in Montgomery, and Roy Carriker, professor in food and resource economics at the University of Florida and head of UF's Natural Resources Leadership Institute.

Putt, a noted expert on water rights issues who helped write Alabama's conservation and natural resources laws, will defend the stance that environmental regulations do not restrict private property rights. Carriker, a national authority on the mediation and resolution of disputes over environmental issues, will argue the position that they do.

Upton Hatch, AUEI director and debate moderator, says the debate will be an effective educational tool for AU students and others who attend.

"Regulations that are established to protect our land, water and air often pit the rights of the individual against the rights of community," Hatch said. "This debate will give students, faculty and area residents the chance to hear both sides of the property rights issue and help them realize that this and other environmental issues may not be black or white, but gray."

Following Putt and Carriker's 40-minute exchange, students from architecture, agriculture, forestry and liberal arts will offer rebuttals to both sides of the issue, after which the floor will be open to the audience. The debate concludes at 6 p.m., after which refreshments will be available.

From 1:30 p.m.-4 p.m. in the auditorium, AU faculty from psychology, forestry, fisheries and allied aquacultures, and biology will present seminars on environmental topics and concerns ranging from methylmercury in seafood to the Endangered Species Act.

Earth Day is observed worldwide each year on April 22 as a time to increase public awareness of critical environmental issues. The first Earth Day, held in 1970, is credited with having put environmental protection on the front burner in the United States.

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apr03:AU-earthday

CONTACT: Upton Hatch, 334/844-4132.