Columbia, Mo. - Concerned students gathered at 12:15 p.m. on MU’s campus to demonstrate their support for asthma sufferers nationwide by coughing and “dying” in a cluster on the pedestrian pathway of Lowry Mall.
The students linked asthma problems to local causes such as the coal-fired power plants on MU’s campus and in the city of Columbia. They held signs saying things like, “Coal = 38,000 heart attacks per year” and “Coal = dirty air”. Passersby walked through Lowry, curiously reading the signs covering the “dead” bodies for several minutes before the group of about 20 people “came back to life” and continued on their way to class.
Many of the students had just come from Power Shift, a conference in D.C. centered on creating a clean energy economy. Power Shift attendee Sarah Johnson said, “We learned a lot about the harmful health effects of dirty energy on surrounding communities, and when we came back we really wanted to do something to convey that awful truth.”
