Virginia Powershift inspires more environmental activism

I have found myself becoming increasingly sucked into the environmentalist movement since coming to the University of Richmond.

Despite the exponentially growing amount of time and effort being consumed, I cannot stop throwing myself only further into activism.

As a Washington state native, my sustainable energy, endless forests and community's general environmental awareness has long been taken for granted.

But upon coming to Virginia, I have realized that most of our country is still unaware of where its energy comes from, the destruction that this process is causing and how very relevant it is to their own lives.

This past weekend I found myself at Virginia Powershift; an entirely student-run, state-wide conference that educates and builds leaders in the Virginian environmentalist movement.

The conference was composed of various educational sessions, ranging from media relations workshops and wind energy educational courses to outright philosophy discussions. I found myself surrounded by passionate people who came from endlessly different perspectives, all fighting for the same cause.

Some people saw sustainability as a purely practical matter: our current methods are finite. Others came from a strongly spiritual background, citing texts on deep Ecology and Buddhism.

Regardless of people's opinions or goals, I left feeling that everyone unanimously felt more certain that change is necessary.

At the end of the conference, many of us participated in a rally that marched to Virginia Tech's coal plant. The health and environmental impacts of our campus' coal plant are certainly large, but the significantly larger plant at Tech seems entirely un-ignorable.

The plant stands literally a stone's throw away from a dorm: students are forced to live with constant noise, and their rooms are incessantly dusted with coal particles loaded with toxins and heavy metals.

As we chanted outside the plant, students began to gather at their dorm room windows. I was excited - clearly they would be happy that we were taking a stand against something putting their own health at risk.

Instead I saw a kid in ROTC garb press a sign against his window stating, "cadets against hippies." The irony is that the sign was hardly decipherable through the coal-stained screen - literally the dust darkened the windows.

One window was cutely adorned with a smiley face finger-painted into the dust. How is it that environmentalism is still seen as a radical or idealistic movement?

Environmentalism isn't just about saving rainforests or whales, it's an issue tied directly into job creation, energy sustainability, a healthier world, a less-cruel world and the preservation of the human race.

How is it that we Virginians can continue to be passive when Norfolk has been rated as the second city most in jeopardy by climate change (second only to New Orleans), when Richmond sits as the number one asthmatic city in the entire country, when our energy comes from coal that is literally decimating our very own mountains and valleys?

The blatant senselessness of all this simply baffled me. But instead of discouraging me, I felt all the more motivated.

Sure, I know my friends will tire of me chastising their bottled water addictions or my constant petition requests.

But I now realize that the power of change is in the people, and is left entirely to the people - I also realize that people aren't yet playing their part.

I also know my conscience won't allow me to sleep at night if I don't take this power and urge others to take it as well. And that is why I am an environmentalist.