Environment Illinois, a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy group, will join the Illinois Environmental Council, for two town hall meetings at the end of August that are part of a statewide series of free public forums on global warming sponsored by IEC.

The latest climate change town hall meetings, which run from 6-7:30 p.m., will take place Aug. 27 at the Southwestern Illinois College’s PSOP building, 201 N. Church, in Belleville; and Aug. 28 at the Forest Park Nature Center in Peoria Heights. Aur J. Beck, an energy efficiency and renewable energy installer who is a global warming expert, will headline both meetings.

Beck operates Advanced Energy Solutions in Carbondale and is a founder and board member of the Illinois Renewable Energy Association and the Southern Illinois Center for a Sustainable Future. He is also a speaker trained by The Climate Project, the nonprofit, nonpartisan project founded by former Vice President Al Gore, who will discuss climate change’s impact on Illinois and alternative energy solutions that will help solve the problem.

Other speakers at the public forums include IEC Executive Director Jonathan Goldman who will outline global warming legislation and Environment Illinois Staff Attorney Brian Granahan who will discuss energy efficiency. The programs will also include representatives and information from local environmental groups that will co-host the events.

The Belleville and Peoria town hall meetings are the third and fourth in a statewide series of global warming public forums that debuted in Decatur June 24 and continues in Alton Aug. 12. A Carbondale event originally set for Aug. 26 has been postponed until Sept. 16.

The public forums convene local residents, elected officials and community groups to discuss how soaring gas prices and asthma rates as well as shifting gardening zones are related to climate change and how to address these problems. Legislative solutions including the Global Warming Response Act (SB2220/HB5254) and Illinois Clean Cars Act (HB 3424/SB 2238) will be presented, and local legislators will be invited to participate.

One solution is increased energy efficiency—getting more out of the energy we already generate. The generation of electricity continues to be the greatest contributor to global warming, with the amount of this pollution produced by electricity up 80% in Illinois since 1990.

A recent report by Architecture 2030, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group based in Santa Fe, found that increasing building efficiency in order to gain one quad of energy -- roughly 1% of our nation’s total consumption -- would cost $42.1 billion. At the same time, the report indicated that achieving this increase through new coal plants would cost three times as much ($122 billion) and at least five times ($222 billion) as much through new nuclear plants.

The Belleville and Peoria forums are also the third and fourth in a series of summer town hall events on energy efficiency sponsored by Environment Illinois, a non-profit environmental advocacy group with over 20,000 members statewide. This series began with an event in Bloomington on July 29 and includes a public meeting in Carbondale on August 26.

For more information about IEC’s global warming town hall series, call 217-544-5954 or visit www.ilenviro.org. For more information about Environment Illinois’ series, call 312-291-0696 or visit www.environmentillinois.org