Students freeze for global warming

Students freeze in place and use cell phones to call Stephen Harper's office on climate change

Event organizer, Caitlin Oliver addresses onlookers and frozen students by megaphone

About 20 cellphones went off simultaneously in the Dalhousie University student union building today, signaling participants to freeze in their tracks for 60 seconds.

SustainDal, an on-campus group that organizes students in activities that draw attention to sustainability issues at Dalhousie, organized the guerilla-style protest.

Event organizer Caitlin Oliver broke the silence by megaphone.

"Stop ignoring the call for emissions reductions."

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Students freeze at the SUB to call attention to the Copenhagen climate conference in December.

"Annoying sound, eh?" says Oliver of the 20 or so ringing cellphones.

" You know what else is annoying? Canada is lagging behind in our Kyoto commitment."

Oliver's megaphone address was followed by a mass cellphone campaign, which had participants call the prime minister's office and leave messages demanding action on climate change.

The effort, which drew the attention of about 50 people passing through the building, is part of the group's involvement in Countdown to Copenhagen.

The international grassroots movement asks people to demand that rich countries make cuts to their carbon emissions to keep global warming within two degrees and help developing countries pay for cuts to emissions, develop cleanly and adapt to climate change.

The Copenhagen climate conference is where the successor to the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2010, is set to be agreed.

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