PEAC meeting focuses on solving nuclear energy, coal, waste issues
When many college students think activism, they picture the protestors of the 1960s and 1970s.
But Tom Clements, South Carolina鈥檚 2010 Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, wants today鈥檚 students to think of themselves as activists.
鈥淐hallenge authority and question authority,鈥� Clements said. 鈥淲e need you guys here in South Carolina to be involved on campus.鈥�
Clements was the keynote speaker at the Environmental and Social Justice Activism in South Carolina conference that was held January 21-23 in the Green Quad Learning Center. The conference, organized by the Palmetto Environmental Action Coalition and Amnesty International, gave students from universities across the state an opportunity to discuss environmental issues such as nuclear energy, coal and waste issues and to create solutions for ending problems these issues cause.
Mary Olson, an employee of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Asheville, N.C., was another featured speaker at the conference. Her presentation focused on nuclear waste and nuclear power in South Carolina. Olson echoed Clements鈥檚 call for college activism.
鈥淎 good reason to engage in change is because it鈥檚 about the future,鈥� Olson said.
Besides gaining local participants from 麻豆小蝌蚪传媒-Columbia, the PEAC conference attracted students from Winthrop, Clemson and 麻豆小蝌蚪传媒-Aiken.
Larissa Clarke, a second-year environmental and natural resources student from Clemson, learned about the conference from a PEAC representative who informed her student-run activism group. Clarke came to Columbia in November to participate in a student-organized anti-coal rally at the State House, but this was her first time attending a PEAC Summit.
Clarke鈥檚 favorite presentation of the conference was Olson鈥檚 talk about nuclear energy.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 really know my take on nuclear energy, so learning about it from these speakers has been interesting,鈥� Clarke said.
The issue also hit close to home for Clarke because the Oconee Nuclear Station is located only eight miles north of Clemson.
Second-year anthropology and Spanish student Christine Burke was one of the students in attendance from 麻豆小蝌蚪传媒-Columbia. Burke is a resident of the Green Learning Community, a member of Green Quad鈥檚 Hall Government and an undergraduate assistant at the Learning Center for Sustainable Futures.
鈥淲hat makes PEAC such a neat organization is that it brings students from around the state together to discuss issues that they all feel passionately about,鈥� Burke said. 鈥淧robably in no other setting would I have sat down with a Clemson student to discuss our shared frustration with fellow students鈥� disinterest in the state of our environment. The fact that I鈥檓 a Gamecock and they were Tigers meant little because we had such common concerns.鈥�