MOHAVE COUNTY - A cost-saving initiative made by Mohave Community College to reduce travel costs between campuses is resulting in major dollar savings for all of Arizona’s community colleges.

MCC established an intercampus exchange (ICE) in January that allowed staff on the college’s four campuses to meet with one another or several other individuals via videoconference from their individual offices.

Currently, there are five conference rooms at MCC equipped for larger groups – one on each campus and one in the administration building in Kingman. There are also close to 100 cameras in offices on the four campuses, so many support staff can now speak to and see other individuals or small groups from their offices without incurring travel costs.

Danette Bristle, the dean of instruction at MCC, suggested that MCC spearhead an effort to hold a fall meeting of the Arizona Transfer Articulation Committee (ATAC) via ICE and save travel, housing and meal costs for those attending. It required a positive response on the part of all participants and their college administrators as well as working out the technical details.

“Not many committee members were in favor of holding the meeting via ICE, and MCC had to work out a few hitches technically,” Bristle said.

“As soon as the other colleges started feeling the budget crunch, however, it became a pretty good idea around the state.”

PHOENIX - Arizona is feeling the effects of climate change more than any other state, but it is also positioned to benefit economically by leading the nation in addressing the problem, a Nobel Prize-winning climatologist told state lawmakers Tuesday.

“If Arizona can get ahead of this problem, we could be the place where they’re deploying the first, the most, solar _ and wind energy as well _ in the nation,” said Jonathan Overpeck, co-director of the University of Arizona’s Institute for the Environment and Society. “Talk about a stimulus.”

There’s plenty of bad news for Arizona if climate change goes unchecked, Overpeck told the House Environment Committee. In the next 50 years, he said, Phoenix could see highs topping 130 degrees and drought could drain reservoirs along the Colorado River, while rising temperatures could change the state’s vegetation, especially at higher altitudes.

“We are the ones who have the most to lose if the climate scientists are right,” he said.

Still, Overpeck said he remains optimistic that Arizona and the rest of the world can make changes that would mitigate the effects of climate change.

“My children, I hope, will have an Arizona to love and cherish as much as we do,” he said.

And Overpeck said Arizona is positioned to lead the nation in renewable energy, especially solar power, which he said would strengthen the state’s economy.