Activists Sleep Out To Support Clean Energy

“All you people, can’t you see, can’t you see...” a group of high school students sang to the tune of the Backstreet Boys’ “Larger Than Life” yesterday afternoon to a crowd gathered on Cambridge Common. “...How much we love clean electricity. Every time you say, we won’t pass your bill, that is a tree you’re gonna kill.”

The four juniors from Northampton High School slept in tents on Cambridge Common last night as part of The Leadership Campaign, organized by the statewide organization Students for a Just and Stable Future. The campaign is calling for 100 percent clean energy in Massachusetts by 2020.

The high school students joined nearly 100 allies, including students from colleges such as Amherst, Boston College, and Northeastern, to lobby for the passage of a bill in the Mass. State House and State Senate that would create a task force to form recommendations for the achievement of their energy goals.

The event included a rally with speeches by student leaders, members of the Cambridge City Council, and Institute of Politics Visiting Fellow and former Seattle Mayor Greg J. Nickels, who led the coalition encouraging mayors to sign on to the goals of the Kyoto Protocol.

“This movement is our revolution,” Cambridge City Council Member Leland Cheung said of his support for environmental causes. “When people say the time isn’t right, that’s complete and utter bullshit.”

This morning the students will march to the Mass. State House to lobby for the bill’s passage. According to Dominique M. McCadden, a Northeastern undergraduate and SJSF’s statewide campaign coordinator, the group hopes that last night’s event and a final sleep-out on Boston Common will encourage legislators to pass the bill by Earth Day on April 22, the day after the final sleep-out.

Jonathan M.L. Rosenthal ’13, SJSF’s statewide communications coordinator, said that the organizers wanted to keep this sleep-out “completely legal,” unlike their previous events held last semester on Boston Common, which has a strict curfew. Rosenthal said that when the organizers realized that Cambridge Common also has a curfew they asked the City Council to grant an exemption.

Although the city was unable to grant the permit on such a short notice, Cheung will introduce a bill to the City Council next week that will allow it to grant exemptions more easily. City Councillor Craig A. Kelley even slept out with the group last night because of the “symbolic” power of the night.

SJSF founder Craig S. Altemose, a student at the Kennedy School and the Law School, said before the event that the Cambridge Police were “just here to protect us.” In fact, the Cambridge Police seemed supportive of the group’s peaceful protest.

“You call that noise?” the police broadcasted from their car as the crowd cheered. “They want to hear you in Central Square. Let’s hear some noise!”

—Staff writer Stephanie B. Garlock can be reached at sgarlock@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Natasha S. Whitney can be reached at nwhitney@fas.harvard.edu.