Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / Oct. 1, 2014, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
T WEDNESDAY, OCT. I THEBLUEBANNER.NET Students attend climate march VALERIE McMURRAY vrmcmurr@unca.edu - Asst. News Editor Intending to put pres sure on world leaders to take action to end climate change, approximately 400,000 people, including 25 UNC Asheville stu dents, joined tTie People’s Climate March on Sept. 21. “I was really surprised about how peaceful ev eryone was,” said Jane Smith, a senior environ mental studies student. “Because usually at pro tests, especially protests about such a huge issue, kind of get tense, but everyone was very re spectful. I waved at cops and they waved back.” Organized by activ ist coalition 350.org, the march took place in New York City. Police read the protest signs and acknowledged their point, according to Merry Hughes, senior and Student Environmen tal Center coordinator. “You never had a feeling of aggression,” Hughes said. “It felt like a unified moment.” Indigenous people, the groups most affected by climate change, led the rally while many other communities of students, scientists and environ mental organizations fol lowed. Simultaneously, 2,646 rallies occurred in 146 countries worldwide. Marchers split up into contingents ranging from a student group to a fam ily group to those based on locality, ethnic origin or economic status — demonstrating the diver sity of the movement to confront climate change. More than 1,000 or ganizations represented themselves at the march. Students exchanged views with people from THE ttIHATE IS CHANGING MHV AREN'T THERE IS NO PLANET Photo Illustration byMerry Hughes - Contributor UNCA students Sarah Harrell, left, and Jane Smith, right, hold signs at the People’s Climate March. across the United States. Attendees said it demonstrated that peo ple are ready for change. “I was very surprised at how much people are catching on and feel ing betrayed by Barack Obama, by the Democrat ic party, by corporations which are claiming that they’ll fix the problem,” said Aaron Rothemich, senior and International Socialist Organization co-founder at UNCA. Ashleigh Hillen, UNCA student, said there remains a concern over whether the switch to renewable ener gy will cut jobs, but even labor activists marched to show that they are ready to make the switch. Like Hillen, Williams Parker, a senior and ISO member, said he came away from the march more concerned about the con Photo by Ashleigh Hillen - Contributor An estimated 400,000 people gathered during the March in New York City. nection between climate change and economic in justice. Others, like Car oline Bluhm, a freshman, went with that in mind. “I wouldn’t say that en vironmental issues were some of the ones I felt the most strongly about, but seeing how it affects peo ple, it is now,” Parker said. “These people are stuck with landfills and envi ronmental waste because they don’t have money to get rid of it. It’s something that people know and they don’t always focus on it.” Parker and Bluhm were among the seven mem bers of UNCA’s chap ter of the ISO attending the NYC Climate Con vergence on Sept. 20. The series of workshops and conferences centered around the idea of system change not climate change. The discussions framed environmental degradation as a social justice issue. Speakers included eco-ce- lebrities like Vandana Shiva and Naomi Klein. “We feel that capital ism is going to fail to ad dress the issues of climate change — the ideas of profit and resource conservation are diametrically opposed to each other,” Rothemich said. “Without radical change, we are not going to be able to stop our de pendency on fossil fuels.” Bluhm said grass roots political activ ism was an aspect of NYC Climate Conver gence that held enor mous emotional appeal. “It shows citizens get ting involved where they live,” she said. Rothemich, who iden tifies as an ecosocial- ist, said he felt pleased that 10,000 people com prised ISO’s contingent at the march. He met ISO members from oth er cities for the first time. “It was really enlighten ing to talk to people who have been veteran activists for 10-20 years,” he said. The ISO brought a lot of energy to the march, chanting through mega phones from 8:30 a.m. 4 p.m., according to the group’s leader. It disappointed Rothe mich the march’s orga nizers did not have for mal demands in place. “You saw demands all over the group and of course it was kind of unstructured, the way that Occupy Wall Street was,” he said. Several students not ed they have yet to see how far the affects of the march reach. Hillen said encouraged by the scale of support the march showed, but doubts the activists’ work is over. “Were we speaking to the people who needed to hear it most?” Hillen asked. SGA fights voter discrimination legislation SHANEE SIMHONI ssimhoni@unca.edu - Poiiticai Coorespondent UNC Asheville’s student government recently joined the It’s On Us initiative, a pledge to end sexual violence. “UNC Asheville is one of 200 universities across the country to sign on with the White House’s It’s On Us initiative to combat sexual assault,” said James Wha len, student body president. During Voter Registration Week, SGA members registered students. “My goal is still 1,500 (stu dents) for the semester, which ends on Oct. 10,” Whalen said. Keith Knox, executive of mul ticultural affairs, continues his work on spreading awareness of the lack of diversity at UNCA. “I want people to see UNCA in a better light,” Knox said. “UNCA is seen as not one of the most diverse places and has a very nasty reputation.” Knox also continues his work on MOSAIC and the uni ty wall, coming up this month. Juliana Grassia, vice president of SGA, said SGA is working with Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, to kick off OLLI’s new program with the Career Center to help students learn how to network. Whelan said bringing in stu dent volunteers would strength en the bond between community volunteers arid UNCA students. Prior to the actual march to the nearest polling location. Sen. Jae Slaughter said she plans to do a march to the polls on the quad on Nov. 4, during which speak ers will talk about why they vote. “The point of march to the polls is, there was a recent legislative bill that went out,” Slaughter said. Slaughter also said one of the facets of march to the polls is “bussing out the vote,” where volunteers will ride buses to inform and help lower-class residents and members of mi nority groups register to vote. Due to an editing error, the wrong credit ran with the Peace Day photograph. Blake Willis took the photo. The Blue Banner apologizes for this error.
University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 1, 2014, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75