Student brings Greenpeace to campus
Environmental science major Dylan Watson attended a summer training camp for Greenpeace.
By Elizabeth Wheeler | Staff Writer
Dylan Watson, an environmental science major, spent five days in Chicago this summer at a Greenpeace Activist camp.
Along with 30 other college students from around the country, Watson learned how to recruit and train new members for the environmental group Greenpeace and also how to work with the media on environmental issues.
As part of his training, Watson volunteered at Warped Tour, an alternative concert series, where in one day’s time he collected over 300 signatures for a Greenpeace initiative petition. The petition was sent to Kimberly-Clark, the largest tissue product manufacturer in the world. According to Greenpeace, Kimberly-Clarke was clear cutting ancient forests in Canada. After a four-year-long effort of petitioning, Greenpeace was able to get Kimberly-Clark to change its policies on how and where it gets its paper.
Growing up on a farm in Fredericksburg, Ind., Watson said he always followed Greenpeace.
“I have known about Greenpeace for most of my life,” he said. “It’s exciting to feel like I can make a difference in Indiana and in this community because it [Greenpeace] is not as well publicized.”
Watson’s first event as UIndy’s Greenpeace campus coordinator will be an airing of the documentary “The Age of Stupid” sometime in mid-October. According to the movie’s Web site, the film depicts what generation “me” and “x” have done to the world by 2055.
A current issue that Greenpeace activists are petitioning for is for President Obama to attend the Copenhagen talks, which hopefully would lead to his signing the Kyoto Protocol.
According to Michael von Bülow from Copenhagen 15 official Web site, the protocol to set rules and regulations that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. More than 184 countries have signed the Kyoto Protocol.
One of Watson’s goals before he graduates in the spring is to have an ongoing relationship with the UIndy Green Team, which is a campus organization focuses on improving the campuses carbon footprint. Caitlin Deranek, president of the Green Team, helps implement environmentally sound campus programs and education.
“We launched a successful recycling program last year and hope to continue this year,” she said. “We also conduct educational sessions.”
Watson said he wants to not only promote recycling, but environmental issues and global warming campus wide, so that the campus can come together and change the world one step at a time.
