On Earth Day (April 22), CFACT at the University of Minnesota-Duluth gave away popsicles to raise awareness for global cooling. With each popsicle they handed out they also gave away a fact sheet with a graph showing how global temperatures have decreased for the past 8 years. They explained that temperatures are not what Al Gore and the media portray, and therefore there is no need to pass drastic legislation such as Cap-and-Trade that would kill jobs, raise energy prices, and harm families financially.
Instead, they told their peers ways to protect the Earth without government interference. The UMD CFACTers explained how the private sector has been the leader in developing alternative energy. Punishing energy companies for not using renewable sources is not the answer, but instead, the government should stay out because eventually, there will be profit in pursuing these energy sources. As our culture becomes more and more eco-friendly, there will be a profit to be made from the “go-green” campaign. Energy companies recognize this, and will capitalize on this.
Not a single time was this logic rebutted, and all of the controversy they met was quelled. They spread CFACT’s values to more than 200 students. Needless to say, a day that Al Gore and his followers claim as their own was a success for CFACT at UMD, making a larger impact than any other environmentalist group did.