LSU students take action on climate change with "Climate Week" - The Reveille, LSU's student newspaper

LSU students take action on climate change with "Climate Week" | News | lsureveille.com

Students filled an LSU Greek Theater draped with colorful banners Friday for Geaux Planet and Climate Pelican’s Climate Rally.

The rally marked the culmination of the second annual “Climate Week,” a weeklong series of events hosted by LSU student organizations Geaux Planet and Climate Pelicans advocating for action on climate change.

The week kicked off on Halloween with banner making on the Parade Grounds, producing three banners reading “Re-invest in our future,” “Divest from fossil fuels” and “Fight For Our Future” which all ended up on display at the final rally.

The next day, Nov. 1, was an open mic night held at Highland Coffees from 7-10 p.m. Open to anyone, the themes were “Nature Appreciation, Climate Change, and Environmental Justice.”

Finally, the Friday climate rally continued last year’s rally theme of divestment, encouraging people and institutions to stop investing in fossil fuel companies, in hopes these companies change their ways. LSU is one such institution with investments in the fossil fuel industry. Signs reading “Divest,” “Divest From Fossil Fuels” and “Geaux Fossil Fuel Free, I'm Sorry, it's not that hard” lined the crowd to support the message.

Jill Tupitza, an Oceanography Ph.D. Candidate and the divestment campaign organizer for Climate Pelicans, was the first speaker at the rally. She started by talking about the importance of collective action and how the LSU student body can use the university to create change and stop the fossil fuel industry.

Climate Pelican and Geaux Planet members Corinne Salter, Jill Tupitza, and Cheyenne Autin discuss divesting Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, at the LSU Greek Theater in Baton Rouge, La.

“These companies not only light the fire under our planet without apology, but they have set up their facilities specifically in Louisiana, extracting our natural resources for profit, destroying our land, and sickening our residents,” Tupitza said. “Divestment is incredibly effective, this movement which has garnered most support on college campuses since 2012 has been cited by multiple fossil fuel companies as restricting their ability to operate and expand. Shell even had to cancel an arctic drilling project because of it.”

She closed her remarks by saying, “If we can make some noise, hold up some signs, and send a clear message to the LSU foundation's administration that this is important to us, we can direct tens of millions of dollars away from fossil fuel companies and into something more socially responsible.”

The next speaker, environmental justice researcher and scientist Corinne Salter, focused on the impact climate change has on marginalized communities and how they believe college students have the ability to aid and educate these communities.

Salter began with a quote from famed author Toni Morrison saying, "Your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.”

Climate Pelican and Geaux Planet members Corinne Salter and Cheyenne Autin discuss divesting Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, at the LSU Greek Theater in Baton Rouge, La.

“As LSU students, who are literally living right next door to some of the most marginalized communities, we have this unique opportunity to use our education and our liberation to liberate others who are not as fortunate to have the same opportunities," Salter said, finishing by saying “We have a duty to our neighbors to help liberate them. When we find our ways in the dark using our science and critical thinking, do we leave others in the dark to stumble and struggle?”

The third speaker was Adam Dohrenwend, a representative from the environmental group Rise St. James, a faith based environmental justice organization based in the heart of Cancer Alley, an 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans responsible for some of the highest cancer rates in the country due to high factory emissions. He spoke on the past and current work of Rise St. James and the work he is doing at LSU.

The group was started in response to petrochemical company Formosa trying to build a new factory in St. James Parish, said Dohrenwend.

“[Founder Sharon Levigne] had about ten people at the first meeting in her living room,” Dohrenwend said, “they kept meeting and over the last couple of years, they won several court battles against Formosa.”

Rise St. James has gone on to block the building of other factories from Formosa, South Louisiana Methanol and the Wanhua Plastics Company in Cancer Alley. Dohrenwend said that now the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality has teamed up with Formosa to appeal these blocks at 9 a.m. on Nov. 7 at the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeals in Baton Rouge.

The final speaker was LSU assistant professor Cheryl Harrison, who works in the Department of Ocean and Coastal Science and the Center for Computation and Technology.

Harrison said she was at the event with two hats on, “First hat is climate scientist. Second hat is just as a person who cares about the world, like you all,” Harrison said.

She went on to describe climate model projections indicating that the only way to avoid major climate tipping points, such as the melting of ice in Greenland and Antarctica, is to dramatically reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Harrison was brought to tears speaking on the matter.

“We can’t wait. We can’t wait for our governance systems to figure it out. We can't for our economic systems,” Harrison said. “And that’s the role of people like us here. We need to shut and say this needs to stop because we’re all gonna die.”

After the speeches, the attendees marched together from the Greek Theatre to the LSU Foundations Center to push for them to divest from fossil fuels. The group yelled out chants like “Fossil fuel or fossil free think about our legacy”, “Can't eat money, can't drink oil,” “Leave our carbon in the soil,” “Divest, divest, it’s in our interest” and “Climate change is not a lie! Do not let our planet die!”

Rally attendees begin marching on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023 on Dalrymple Drive in Baton Rouge, La.

Geaux Planet works on many other projects other than their yearly Climate March. They hold events like "Bike on the Levee" and Nature walks, and also highlight people in the LSU and Louisiana community with their "Speaker Spotlights" and "Treehugger Tuesdays."

The next climate march is likely to take place in November of next year.