By ERIN EDGEMON-April 18, 2007-9:54 AM

Sheryl Crow and Laurie David discuss global warming awareness.

There is power to inspire change in rock 'n roll music and in the minds of college students.

Knowing these things to be true, rocker Sheryl Crow and environmentalist Laurie David embarked on a two-week college tour to spread awareness of global warming.

MTSU was the seventh stop for the biodiesel fueled Stop Global Warming tour bus on the 11-university tour.

MTSU President Sidney McPhee expected it is former Vice President Al Gore's connection to the university that brought the tour to MTSU. Gore, a former MTSU guest lecturer, developed the Power Point presentation used in the Academy Award-winning global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" at MTSU, he said.

Crow's popular tunes likely attracted most of the 2,000 plus MTSU students, faculty and staff to the free Stop Global Warming event at Murphy Center Tuesday night.

But the activists hoped to capture the attention of students and inspire them to make changes in their own life and demand changes nationally to put an end to global warming.

"We are both terrified about what is happening to this planet," David said of why she and Crow embarked on the college tour. "The globe is warming, and it is humans that are causing it."

Thousands of scientists across the world have said global warming is real and the planet is warming faster than anyone first thought, she said.

Global warming is caused by carbon dioxide in the air. It not only causes warmer weather but more extreme weather.

Rising carbon dioxide levels are causing heat waves in the Midwest, severe droughts in the Southwest, shortened ski seasons in the Northeast and more violent hurricanes on the east and Gulf coasts, David and Crow said.

"Hurricane Katrina is just a taste of what is to come if we don't stop global warming," David said during the campus presentation.

Doing such small things as replacing a regular light bulb with a longer-lasting, less-energy-consuming compact fluorescent bulb, keeping vehicles tuned up, using less hot water and turning off all electronic devices can positively impact the planet.

A household that replaces two bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, according to information from the Stop Global Warming campaign. If every household in the U.S. did the same, it would save a trillion pounds of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere.

"It is not about us doing everything," Crow said. "It is about everybody doing something."

MTSU junior Reggie Miller said he appreciated Crow and David making MTSU a tour stop.

"I think it is great," he said. "A lot of people who wouldn't be interested in the issue are here because it is free."

Miller, who is co-chair of MTSU's Students for Environmental Action, hopes the concert inspires students to make changes in their lives and help in the campaign to make changes at the university.

Last year, MTSU students overwhelming passed a referendum to add $8 to the fees students pay per semester to purchase power generated through renewable resources. Some 11 percent of the university's energy is produced by green energy.

David and Crow encourage everyone to join the Stop Global Warming Virtual March by visiting www.stopglobalwarming.org. Founded by David, U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), the online database is serving as the 21st Century's version of marching on the U.S. capital to get the attention of political leaders.

Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.

On the Web:
www.stopglobalwarming.org