Students and community members at Wheaton College (IL) came together for a series of awareness-raising activities on October 24 to commemorate 350.org's International Day of Climate Change.  Organized by the student group, A Rocha Wheaton, the event included stations for calculating personal carbon footprints, conducting a campus waste audit, reading first-hand accounts of how climate change is affecting communities around the world, enjoying a rousing musical perfomance by a local band, and even composing environmental haikus...  Here are some of the entries:

Sunflowers in bloom
Acid rain falls on its blooms
Destruction ensues
-Chelsea

So many species
Still left to be discovered
Save to discover 

A water bottle
Water covered in plastic
So very wasteful
-Drew 

Breathing is awesome
I hope we can tomorrow
Forest almost gone
-B.W. 

Rain falls to the ground
What a peaceful melody
We must keep you pure
-Jennifer

Nature is a treat
Don’t treat it like a sickness
All I love is trees
-Rob

Autumn’s fiery leaves
Glistening winter snowflakes
Preserve this beauty
-Laura

Beauty of the earth
We must take care of it now
Lest it waste away
-Renee

Pollute and all die
Stewardship means love for all
It is that simple
-Arielle

This wrinkled paper,
Pulled from littered past—
Means more tomorrow

Why even bother?
Because it’s not only ours
Be responsible
-Ben 


The A Rocha Wheaton organizing team (and Ben Lowe)!