Greenpeace

Last Friday morning I spoke by phone with Heather, coordinator of the KC campaign for the Chicago area, and David, campus coordinator for the University of Chicago. Heather’s cell phone was passed back and forth, sometimes with background noise, sometimes with cutting out (“we’re in a basement,” Heather explained) but—technical difficulties aside— I got to learn about the work Heather and David have done and are doing to kick KC off Chicago-area campuses.

Ill_Assist_You [IAY]: How did you get involved in this campaign?
Heather [H]: I got involved with the campaign last year through a University of Chicago student who had interned at Greenpeace.
David [D]: When I started working with the campus environmental group [ECO—Environmental Concerns Organization], Heather was already working on this campaign.

IAY: What techniques and activities have you been using/doing at U of C and in the greater Chicago area?
H: Last year we targeted Cafferty [KC board member and Professor Emeritus at U of C]. We did street theater, reenacting The Lorax with a tissue box as the bad guy. We also did a lot of petitioning and tabling. This year, we are working on targeting Linda Johnson Rice [KC board member and president and chief executive officer of Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., publishers of Ebony and Jet magazines, based in downtown Chicago]. We’ll do basically the same things as we did with Cafferty, and we will also create a media packet on the campaign to give to Rice.

IAY: What have been some of the challenges of this campaign?
D: One of the challenges is that we were stonewalled by Cafferty last year.
H: We talked to Cafferty once; she said she’d send us information that KC had sent her, but then she never got back to us.
D: This year, we’ve been after Rice. She’s impenetrable by phone, but we’re working on creative ways to deliver our message to her. Some of our ideas are having a bike messenger drop off a package for her and have a singing telegram go up to her office. We’ll make as much noise as possible in front of her office, and distribute fliers to her employees to let them know what KC is doing. To deal with being ignored, we’ve got to make it impossible to be ignored.   

IAY: What’s been the response from people at U of C and in the Chicago area to this campaign?
D: The response on campus has been really good. We’ve got a high response rate to the petitions we asked people to sign—the highest rate I’ve ever had with a campaign. Also, when we did The Lorax demonstration, people walking around the quad joined in, put on silly tree costumes. The trick is to channel this willingness to be involved in the campaign into lasting volunteers. I think people respond to the campaign because it’s hard to find us unreasonable. We’re asking a corporation to be responsible. It resonates that KC is ridiculous; there are no rational grounds for people to object. People also respond to the brochures we’re handing out. The brochures explain the campaign on one side and on the other list legit forest friendly paper products. It makes it easy for people to switch; it’s pragmatic and reasonable.
H: I’ve been talking to other environmentalists in Chicago and they are interested in the campaign. So far the activist community is very responsive.

IAY: What’s your inspiration for doing environmental work?
H: I study geoscience, so there are a lot of logical reasons why it makes sense to be an environmentalist. Drastic climate change will hurt the environment. Also, on a personal level, I really like the environment and I want others to experience it. I’m interested in the connections between environmentalism and human health and environmentalism and environmental justice.
D: I grew up in South Dakota but it wasn’t until I moved to Chicago that I really started to appreciate the environment. After my 1st year in Chicago, I went home and did a lot of camping with my father. I find being in a forest, being near mountains, very moving. I love that these places exist, and that humans and nonhumans experience them. With ECO, I push field trips because I want other people to experience how incredible the earth is. The KC campaign is a great way to protect old growth forests.

PS: I'll be posting Lorax photos from Heather soon!!