At 11:35 a.m. Thursday, students across campus participated in a “walkout,” leaving class early to attend a rally for renewable energy. “As an institution of higher learning, we feel that we should be spearheading the sustainability movement,” said Initiative for Clean Energy president Lance Lewis as students, faculty and staff were assembling in Borchuck Plaza for the rally. “We should be leading the way, but instead we’re still burning coal and natural gas, polluting our air and wrecking our vital ecosystems in the Appalachian mountains, and that’s got to end.”

Yellow cards with rally chants printed on them were handed out to participants as the walk across campus began. Mountaintop removal activist Larry Gibson, who gave a free, public lecture Thursday night on the topic, attended the rally.

“You started it, we’re going to do it – we’re going to finish it,” Gibson said to a group of rally attendees in front of the physical plant on campus.

“Profit over rights, too high a price,” said Gibson, who lives on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia. Gibson later described his land as an island, surrounded by a “moonscape” of surface mining.

“We want Stanton to commit to the PCC,” Lewis said. “In a nutshell, that will put in a plan to become a carbon neutral campus.”

The American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment is a group that provides the framework for institutes of higher learning to become carbon neutral campuses.

On their Web site, the ACUPCC explains why they think American universities should sign an agreement to become carbon neutral.

“While we understand that there might be short-term challenges associated with this effort, we believe that there will be great short-, medium- and long-term economic, health, social and environmental benefits, including achieving energy independence for the U.S. as quickly as possible.”

“This basically means that we would be consuming enough sustainable energy that it would balance the amount of pollution that we’re putting out,” said Ash-Lee Henderson. “The rally was inspiring and it moved people to get active in the movement to stop our direct purchasing of coal.”

Students marched back to Borchuck Plaza from the ETSU power plant, chanting lines from the yellow cards they were given before the rally: “Hey Stanton, it’s hot out here. There’s too much carbon in the atmosphere.”

For more information about the Presidents’ Climate Commitment, visit www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org.

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