By: Brandice Altfillisch /The Daily Cardinal
- March 9, 2009
Student representatives from
across the state met Saturday to discuss how to effectively push
politicians to pass global warming legislation.
Members of the Wisconsin Public Interest
Research Group’s Big Red, Go Green sector met Saturday to educate
members of the Wisconsin Student Climate Coalition on effective
lobbying practices.
“Over the past semester, WISPIRG
and Big Red, Go Green have been working to set up a statewide group of
environmentalists from campuses across the state to work on global
warming legislation,” Scott Thompson, coordinator of the program, said.
Representatives
from Ripon College, UW-Stevens Point and UW-Madison, who are part of
the Wisconsin Student Climate Coalition, attended the meeting. The
coalition also consists of students from UW-Milwaukee, Marquette
University, UW-La Crosse and Northland College.
“I want to
see students all across Wisconsin talking about climate change and how
they’re fighting that on their campus,” Andy Bean, president of an the
Environmental Group of Ripon College, said.
At the
meeting, coalition members brainstormed new plans for 2009 and how to
make the most of Wisconsin’s current political stance on global warming.
“We
feel like the wind is kind of at our backs right now,” Thompson said.
“Stopping [Alliant Energy’s Nelson Dewey] coal plant, having the
students stand up in the election, and just the political
atmosphere—it’s right.”
The day’s agenda also included
conferences with Dan Kohler of Wisconsin Environment and Ryan Schryver
of Clean Wisconsin, which are both non-profit environmental
organizations. The speakers provided students with a clear
understanding of the complexities of passing global warming legislation.
Thompson said he is confident student efforts will help in the fight to pass global warming legislation.
“As
long as this Wisconsin Student Climate Coalition and all the
environmental groups are working as hard as we can, we think that
Wisconsin might have a strong global warming bill in place next year,”
he said.
Big Red, Go Green is currently working to pass
global warming legislation through their postcard campaign. The project
aims to collect 10,000 postcards to encourage legislators to “take real
action on global warming.” Students can find members of WISPIRG handing out postcards in front of Memorial Union.
The Wisconsin Student Climate Coalition is a part of WISPIRG’s climate change sector, Big Red, Go Green. For more information on WISPIRG’s efforts, visit wispirgstudents.org.
