9:30 – 10:00: Welcome and Coffee

10:00 – 10:15: President Peter P. Mercer
10:15 – 10:30: Dean Sam J. Rosenberg
10:30 – 11:00: Keynote Address – Assemblywoman Connie Wagner

11:00 – 12:00: Panel – Ecological Impacts

• Dr. George Crozier, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Dauphin Island, AL
• Dr. Richard H. Pierce, Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, FL
• Ramapo Faculty

12:00 – 1:00: Lunch

1:00 – 2:00: Panel – Ecological Impacts

• Dr. John H. Paul, University of South Florida, FL
• Dr. Harry Allen, US EPA Region 2, NJ
• Dr. Mark Sprenger, US EPA Region 2, NJ
• Ramapo Faculty

2:00 – 3:00: Panel – Social Impacts

• Marc A. Yaggi, Waterkeeper Alliance, NJ
• Tom Constanza, Catholic Charities, New Orleans, LA
• Ramapo Faculty

3:00 – 3:45: Refreshments

3:45 – 5:15: Gulf Oil Spill, Haiti, Katrina and the Environment: Organizing from Below with Media Activism and Alternative Media
Filmmaker Ghen Zando-Dennis will show short films, including works-in-progress, making connections between the “natural” and “man-made” disasters of the earthquake in Haiti, the hurricane in New Orleans, and the Gulf Oil Spill. Supported with Platinum Series grant.

11:00 – 12:00: Panel – Historical Perspectives

• Dr. Brian Black, Penn State University, Altoona, PA
  Historical Perspectives on Oil, and the Deepwater Horizon Disaster
• Andrew Willner, Andrew J Willner Consultants, Keyport, NJ
• Ramapo Faculty

12:00 – 1:00 PM: Lunch

1:00 – 2:00: Panel – Media Perspectives

• Charles Schmidt, Journalist
• David Barstow, New York Times
• Ramapo Faculty

2:30 – 4:00: Film

• Gasland (2010, Josh Fox, U.S.A., 107 minutes, documentary)
  “The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a “Saudia Arabia of natural gas” just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown.”

7:45 – 9:30: Film – Cinemathique Presentation

• Crude  (2009, Joe Berliner, U.S.A., 105 minutes, documentary)
  One of the largest and most controversial legal cases on the planet. An inside look at the infamous $27 billion “Amazon Chernobyl” case, CRUDE is a real-life high stakes legal drama set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film examines a complicated situation from several angles while bringing a story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.