Peter is making quite the impact in the Chicago Beyond Coal ad campaign!
More outlets have gotten wind of the ad launch and have started connecting the coal fights on both the local and national level:
The American Independent: http://www.americanindependent.com/194831/obamas-smog-decision-backed-by-big-business-donors-called-a-huge-loss-for-public-health
“I want to fight for my kid to be able to breathe, and Midwest Generation is making it more difficult for my kids to be able to breathe,” Wasserman told The American Independent. “We need to make sure that we are not paying a price for a company that’s making money.”
TimeOut Chicago Magazine:
The petition cites “asthma-causing soot” as one of its main concerns. “I’ve spoken to a lot of kids in the [Little Village] neighborhood, and they call the coal plant ‘the cloud maker,’ ” Orphan says. “And they don’t know that cloud is making them sick.”
Titan: Sierra Club Photos – Download PDF here.
Sneak peek Roll Beyond Coal
If you haven’t seen adorable, frail six year-old Peter Wasserman clutching an inhaler, you will soon. In mid-September, environmental advocacy group Sierra Club launched a massive ad campaign to “raise public awareness about the health risks” of coal plants in the Chicago area. The group placed ads featuring Wasserman—one of many people who live next to the Crawford coal plant in Little Village—in newspapers like Hoy and the RedEye, and in 100 CTA trains.
Sierra Club, a national organization, found itself
nancially able to paper the city with its Beyond Coal campaign
after receiving a $50 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies earlier this year. But Chicago’s two coal plants—which, according to the Sierra Club, sit in a three-mile radius of one in four Chicagoans—have other local enemies.
Chicago Clean Power Coalition, a group of about 50 organizations (including the Sierra Club), plans a rally and march in the shadow of Pilsen’s Fisk smokestack on Saturday 24. That day is dubbed International Day of Climate Action, and true to the day’s name, the group takes action by leading Roll Beyond Coal, an 11am bike ride from Daley Plaza to Dvorak Park (1119 W Cullerton St), where the rally commences.
The march aims to use a show of bodies to tell Midwest Generation— owner of both coal plants—“to clean up or retire the plant” and, taking it a step further, to transition workers to clean energy jobs. The Sierra Club’s ad campaign
intends to simply tell Chicagoans that the plants exist. “I don’t think a lot of Chicagoans are aware that we have
coal-operating plants within the city limits,” says Claire Orphan, Sierra Club’s associate press secretary.
“We’re the only major metropolitan area that has one. And we not only have one, we have two.” As of press time, Chicago Clean Power Coalition plans to deliver a petition to City Hall on September 20.
The petition cites “asthma-causing soot” as one of its main concerns. “I’ve spoken to a lot of kids in the [Little Village] neighborhood, and they call the coal plant ‘the cloud maker,’ ” Orphan says. “And they don’t know that cloud is making them sick.”