10/28/09
More than 100 students representing 20 Massachusetts schools such as Boston University, Clark University and University of Massachusetts-Amherst, gathered Sunday on the Common across from the state house with tents and sleeping bags to lobby the state legislature to make Massachusetts the first state in the country to implement 100% clean energy such as wind and solar power which do not emit carbons into the atmosphere.
"It's good to show our representatives community support, especially that of young people. It puts pressure on them but at the same time eases up because they do have that support," Megan Renoir, philosophy freshman at BU said.
The event was organized by members of the Leadership Campaign (LC), a student organization whose goal is to make Massachusetts the first state to use 100% clean energy and shut down existing facilities using fossil fuels by the year 2020. "I don't want our generation to be remembered as the kids who sat around as all of this happened. Wake up. Sleep out," Jess Feldish, an environmental studies and economics sophomore at Northeastern University, said.
According to Craig Altemose, the LC and Sleep-Out coordinator, the purpose of the sleep-out is to show the state legislature that there are people who want Massachusetts to be more clean and they're refusing to sleep in homes and dormitories powered by dirty electricity. "All of us understand that it's 'politically difficult' to do this, to bring together political policy with science to meet the needs of the human race," Ray Adler, an engineering sophomore and recruitment coordinator for the LC at Northeastern, said.
According to Altemose, the LC wants Gov. Patrick to sign a bill the LC has written which would decrease the amount of carbon dioxide allowed to be present in the atmosphere from 450 to 350 parts per million. The LC insists that this be done before the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark begin on Dec. 7.
Once everyone set up their tents and prepared for the night they participated in songs, chants and sharing reasons why switching to 100% clean energy is so important. "We hear all this depressing stuff about what's going to happen and now we know what we have to do and we're ready to do it. That's why I love this campaign," Lizzie Rubenstein, a global environmental studies sophomore at Clark, said.
The Rev. Robert J. Mark, assistant chaplain at Harvard University Memorial Church said that scientists estimate that as early as 2035 a huge chunk of the Himalayan glacier may disappear leaving millions of people without fresh water. "We as people alive today have a responsibility to act because this is very much something happening during our lifetime," he said. The group chanted slogans such as "This is what democracy looks like!" and referred to the Obama campaign's slogan "Yes, we can!"
The sleep-out on the Common on Sunday was the first in the series of sleep-outs now taking place across the state. Students on campuses throughout Massachusetts are now sleeping outside on their campuses on weeknights only to return to the Common every Sunday. They will continue to do so until the legislature passes the 100% clean energy bill.
"I do believe in the cause, in Massachusetts becoming the leader in clean energy. Hopefully this bill will soon so we don't have to sleep out here during the winter," Josh Torres, an English senior and media coordinator for the LC at Northeastern, said.
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