As the Senate gears up to tackle global warming, the Student PIRGs are working with more than 150 student interns on college campuses across the country to spotlight the need to combat global warming and urge our national political leaders to take immediate action to confront the problem.
With many schools across the country back in session the Student PIRGs kicked off this effort yesterday, teaming up with Campus Progress, Sierra Student Coalition, and the Clean Energy Works table on a National Campus Call-In Day for Global Warming Solutions. Generating 2392 calls into Senate offices, students on 33 campuses in 12 states (CA, CT, IA, IN, MA, MD, MO, NJ, NM, OH, WI, WA) organized events on campus that featured 20-foot wind turbines, Muscle-suit costumes, Super Hero Senators and more.
At Indiana University for instance, INPIRG students decorated Senator Evan Bayh in a superhero costume and mobilized 256 students to call his office (in the pouring rain) and urge him to be ‘Senate Superhero’ on climate.
Media Highlights:
WISPIRG calls on Feingold to support green-energy bill, The Daily Cardinal, University of Wisconsin, Madison
INPIRG lobbies Bayh for real-life changes, Indiana Daily Student (Indiana University)
Volunteers dress as Santa, push global warming solutions, Daily Targum (Rutgers University)
Building grassroots power on campus is critical for the prospects of a Senate climate bill this fall and students on campus understand that. Melissa Grau, a student intern with WISPIRG said “We have to accelerate our progress to stop global warming…Big oil and coal lobbyists are fighting hard to stop the bill and hindering grassroots efforts, causing Sen. Feingold to be a swing voter. This means we need to generate a lot of student power on the ground.”
In October, the Student PIRGs will continue to mobilize youth to pressure the Senate. We’ll drop off thousands of petition signatures to Senate district offices in favor of strong congressional action on global warming and team up with city officials and campus administrators to organize green building tours that will highlight the economic benefits of energy efficiency measures in proposed federal climate legislation.
It’s a shame though, that pairing up with Clean Energy Works also means pairing up with Dow Chemical, BP, Conoco-Philips, and a host of greenwashers! This Bill will legitimize Carbon Trading, as well as ensure that things like incineration of landfill waste is called “renewable” – we MUST get our heads on straight folks, and understand that just because it sounds good to pass a climate bill, it doesn’t mean that a horrible, filthy, greenwashed climate bill that favors corporate interests is what we’re after. Back to the drawing board! NO to ACESA, and YES to real progress. These false solutions only prolong the problem!
I would like to say that my Santa costume had a very warm microclimate and sure enough, my sweat flooded the coasts of my clothing. Or in other words, I was very hot.