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.
