Northeastern University student Alyssa Pandolfi crawled out of her tent on Boston Common yesterday.
(Bill Greene/ Globe Staff)
Student-run group camps out for climate change legislation
Seeks clean energy mandate by 2020
Northeastern University student Alyssa Pandolfi crawled out of her tent on Boston Common yesterday.
(Bill Greene/ Globe Staff)
The Leadership Campaign, a Massachusetts-based student-run group focused on the environment, is looking to have a series of sleep-overs on Boston Common imbued with a sense of urgency about taking action on the environment.
In the first Sunday camp-out yesterday, event organizers said they expected 125 people at the foot of the State House to protest what they see as the environmentally damaging way homes and dorms are powered and heated.
The group plans to walk into State House this morning and ask to address the Legislature, said Boston Media Coordinator Dan Abrams. They want to urge lawmakers to pass legislation requiring that Massachusetts be powered exclusively by clean energy by 2020.
The group will camp on the Common every Sunday until an international summit on climate change on Dec. 7 in Copenhagen, Abrams said. The group gathered for a 4 p.m. rally near Park and Beacon streets yesterday, during which various students and faith leaders expressed the need for immediate and drastic legislation to help reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to 350 parts per million, the amount some leading scientists say is required for the climate to remain stable. Today, levels hover around 390 parts per million, scientists say.
When Rev. Rob Mark of the First Presbyterian Church of Waltham took the megaphone, he called climate change a moral issue and said citizens must do everything in their power to avert the suffering of “environmental refugees.’’
Lizzie Rubenstein, a Clark University sophomore, told about 70 onlookers the campaign is an action-oriented counterpoint to pessimism about the Earth’s future.
“We have a solution, and we know what we [have to] do,’’ she said. “That’s what I love about this campaign.’’
About 40 minutes into the rally, Rev. Fred Small strummed out his song, “Three Five O’’ on guitar. Small, the senior minister at First Parish Cambridge, said that college students getting involved could be the start of something big. “What carried the civil rights movement was young people,’’ he said.
Katie MacDonald, a University of Massachusetts sophomore, said that 25 people endured torrential rain Saturday night, hunkering down on the town common in Amherst. MacDonald said the Massachusetts Council of Churches provided the campers with hot cider and snacks.
Northeastern University sophomore Jessica Feldish said 20 students camped out on that school’s campus Saturday night. Students from six Boston-area universities and five other Massachusetts schools, including Amherst College and Westfield State College, were present at yesterday’s rally.
“We’re not fooling around,’’ said Boston University student Melanie Glass, 22. “This is a proactive way to fight climate change instead of just going to meetings.’’
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
