Students protest campus coal use

The protest is one of 60 taking place throughout the country.

By Trevor Eischen

Published Sept. 16, 2009

About 25 students, organized by the Sierra Club, gathered at Speakers Circle on Wednesday to voice their plea to the university to abandon coal energy and enact cleaner alternatives.

The rally is one of 60 being held at college campuses nationwide.

Students formed a curved line behind student speakers in the circle. They carried large signs reading “Coal=Past, Clean=Future” and “Get Mizzou Clean Energy.” Some even had dark lines under their face to represent soot produced by power plant smokestacks.

“No more coal,” the students shouted.

In 2007, MU used more than 48,900 tons of coal, according to a Sierra Club report recently released. The report elaborates on 11 universities, which receive their electrical energy from coal power plants.

Students laid a brown tarp and dumped 25-pounds of coal on it. This is the amount burned every five seconds at MU, according to the Sierra Club’s 2007 statistics.

Green Corps Organizer Ryan Doyle works with the Sierra Club’s Coal-Free Campus Campaign and travels to universities to help students voice their cause.

The campaign’s ultimate goal is to help colleges and universities in the transition from coal to clean energy.

“University campuses should be leaders in technological innovation and sustainability,” Doyle said. “They should be places of learning, development and growth where students can thrive, not homes to polluting 19th-century technology.”

For senior Mallory Shillinger, who studies international relations, Spanish and environmental science, the revelation to fight for the clean energy cause happened when she visited Kayford Mountain in West Virginia over the summer. She said she witnessed a destructive mining operation where companies blow off the tops of mountains to extract small amounts of coal. This technique is known as mountaintop removal mining.

“After they’re done extracting, all the rubble rolls down to the stream,” Shillinger said. “This is their main source of water. Basically, they’re drinking coal residue.”

She said the coal rubble contains chemicals including arsenic, lead and mercury, all of which create public health hazards. But she said the companies get away with their extraction practices because the majority demographic of the region has no power against the coal companies.

“The thing is, these people are in a low socioeconomic standing, which is sad because every person is worthy of having clean drinking water,” Shillinger said.

Business and agriculture sophomore Joe Bohm said environmental science classes convinced him of the dangers of coal burning power plants and the rapid consumption of non-renewable resources on the planet.

“If America kept up its current use of energy, it would require 9.2 Earths to supply the entire world,” Bohm said. “That really shocked me. It was a huge turning point for me.”

Nursing sophomore Addie Schnurbusch said she grew up in a house with parents devoted to environmental preservation and said the time to act is now.

“We’re literally like, ‘It’s not going to affect us for a hundred thousand years. It’s their problem,’” Schnurbusch said. “It should be our problem.”