Group holds zombie walk in protest of ISU coal plant
Anna Waddick, junior in art and design, and Tyler Rygg, sophomore in philosophy, hold a sign together asking ISU President Geoffroy to take action on climate change. Waddick and Rygg were taking part in a march across campus on international day of climate change on Saturday, October 24, 2009. Photo: Kelsey Kremer/Iowa State Daily
By Rashah McChesney — Daily Staff Writer
About 25 people gathered underneath the Campanile on Saturday, painted their faces with fake blood and bruises and unfolded banners decrying coal.
The bells tolled at 11 a.m. and they called the White House to leave messages for President Obama, asking him to take a stronger stance on climate change issues. Then they marched.
The group, ActivUS, is an ISU group, formerly known as Students for Iowa PIRG, that campaigns for environmental and social justice on campus.
The group’s president, Graham Jordison, senior in political science, said the zombie-themed march was meant as a playful homage to Halloween, but was also meant to represent people who need to wake up from their zombie-like states and pay attention to the world around them.
According a press release, the group wants ISU President Geoffroy to “wake up and eliminate dirty coal on campus.”
Campus environmental group discusses sustainability with President Geoffroy
After carrying their banners across Central Campus, down in front of Ross Hall and to the coal plant, the group stopped and listened to speakers discuss the negative consequences that coal has on the environment, as well as the current state of climate change legislation.
Mark Edwards, ISU alumnus, said he’s lived near the Des Moines River since the 1970s and watched, dismayed, as a contractor for Iowa State dumped fly ash from the coal plant near the Des Moines River, potentially damaging his water supply.
According to an Iowa State Daily story published in 2004, a company known as the Biosolids Management Group was dumping a fly ash by-product in a gravel pit known as the Victoria M. Meier, east of the Des Moines River in Boone.
Edwards said he wanted the university to take more responsibility for its waste by-products and has been actively involved on campus in sustainability issues since he graduated in 1969.
“The more I understand what’s going on,” he said, “the more I feel that I have to take more action. It’s not getting better — it’s getting worse.”
The bells tolled at 11 a.m. and they called the White House to leave messages for President Obama, asking him to take a stronger stance on climate change issues. Then they marched.
The group, ActivUS, is an ISU group, formerly known as Students for Iowa PIRG, that campaigns for environmental and social justice on campus.
The group’s president, Graham Jordison, senior in political science, said the zombie-themed march was meant as a playful homage to Halloween, but was also meant to represent people who need to wake up from their zombie-like states and pay attention to the world around them.
According a press release, the group wants ISU President Geoffroy to “wake up and eliminate dirty coal on campus.”
Campus environmental group discusses sustainability with President Geoffroy
After carrying their banners across Central Campus, down in front of Ross Hall and to the coal plant, the group stopped and listened to speakers discuss the negative consequences that coal has on the environment, as well as the current state of climate change legislation.
Mark Edwards, ISU alumnus, said he’s lived near the Des Moines River since the 1970s and watched, dismayed, as a contractor for Iowa State dumped fly ash from the coal plant near the Des Moines River, potentially damaging his water supply.
According to an Iowa State Daily story published in 2004, a company known as the Biosolids Management Group was dumping a fly ash by-product in a gravel pit known as the Victoria M. Meier, east of the Des Moines River in Boone.
Edwards said he wanted the university to take more responsibility for its waste by-products and has been actively involved on campus in sustainability issues since he graduated in 1969.
“The more I understand what’s going on,” he said, “the more I feel that I have to take more action. It’s not getting better — it’s getting worse.”
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