Click on the graphic to access The Bellingham Herald article, “Concerned about climate change, WWU students seek to revoke ‘climate agnostic’ Ericksen’s degree”

September 14, 2018  Dena Jensen

20 days have gone by with 20 posts containing more than 20 reasons that Doug’s Got to Go.  It is a little over 3 years ago now that three proactive and creative students at Western Washington University sought to have Republican State Senator Doug Ericksen’s 1995 WWU  master’s degree in political science and environmental policy revoked. 

This May 7, 2015 article by Ralph Schwartz in The Bellingham Herald contains a brief interview with the three young women, Chiara D’Angelo, Evelyn Kennedy, and Emily Krieger, who sought to find a stimulating way to confront Senator Ericksen’s self-professed climate-agnosticism, which at that time was taking the form of trying to remove the language “climate change” from a bill being reviewed by the Climate Legislative and Executive Workgroup. Here is an excerpt:

“‘The Western degree is what gives us more of a personal connection to this,’ Krieger said. ‘People we talk to say, ‘He has a Western degree?’

“‘We’re framing it in a more radical way,’ D’Angelo said. ‘We’re not just trying to have a conversation with him or hold him accountable. We’re trying to revoke his degree and get people to pay attention.’

“The Republican senator has been at odds with Democrats over how to craft policy on climate change and carbon reduction. He butted heads with Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee and Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island, on the  Climate Legislative and Executive Workgroup. Ericksen removed language in the bill creating the workgroup that mentioned ‘climate change’ and the threat it posed to the state.”