ST. PETER — Sen. Amy Klobuchar says the folks in Washington should start paying more attention to folks in Minnesota.

Minnesota has some of the toughest legislation of any state to cut greenhouse emissions, and it is here where both Democrats and Republicans have tried to put their differences aside to do something about a pressing problem.

Klobuchar came to Gustavus Adolphus College Tuesday and led a panel presentation on climate change. Klobuchar talked about her trip last summer to Greenland, which she called the “canary in the coal mine” on the global warming issue.

During her trip, she visited with Greenland residents, who now grow potatoes on land that 20 years ago was covered with ice. In two decades an area of ice in Greenland the size of Texas has melted away.

Klobuchar came to Gustavus because she’s impressed with the work being done on college campuses and because the college is in the midst of National Campus Energy Challenge. She said young people will be and should be on the front lines of the fight to reverse the mercury on the planet’s thermometer.

“We’re really seeing the grass-roots work on this issue come from the campuses,” she said.

The senator also has spent a lot of her time working on this issue. In addition to her fact-finding trip to Greenland, she was a co-sponsor of the bipartisan America’s Climate Security Act, which would implement a so-called “cap and trade” system with market-based incentives to reduce greenhouse gas pollution by 70 percent by 2050.

The bill has passed the Senate’s Environment Committee and will soon be considered by the full Senate. She’s hopeful good things will happen.

“I’m an optimist. You have to be an optimist to get anything done in Washington,” she said. “The debate in Washington has shifted. We’re no longer talking about if (global warming) is happening, but we’re talking about what to do about it.”

Klobuchar wasn’t the only one to talk about the issue. She had a whole panel of experts.

Gustavus student Amanda Varley, who has garnered notoriety from her internship and work with the Will Steger Foundation, talked about all the good things Gustavus students are doing to cut down on waste and reduce energy use.

Varley, wearing a T-shirt with a big green recycling triangle on the front, mentioned the work of the Gustavus Greens. The group at one time tried to get the college to provide reusable food containers to students, hoping they’d produce less waste by not needing carry-out boxes. But that idea was stopped in its tracks by the state’s Department of Health.

She said many students are doing their part to conserve energy, such as carpooling or by carrying reusable water bottles.

Panelist Jim Dontje of Gustavus pointed out that, with 4,200 colleges and universities in this country enrolling 17 million students, a combined effort to cut down waste and conserve energy from all colleges could have a major impact on the planet.

But, he added, real change must come from real commitment.

“You can’t just buy a hybrid car, slap on the solar panels and — voila! — carbon neutrality,” he said.

Lew Giesking from the city of St. Peter talked about what the city is doing to help out, such as giving rebates to residents who purchase energy-efficient appliances. The city, he said, also is working with Gustavus to make the campus greener.

And J. Drake Hamilton, a state geographer, said a lot of progress has been made in the past year on global warming.

“We’ve proved that it can be done,” Hamilton said. “And now we have to step up and do it.”