Amid shouts of “no more pollution, we have a solution,” about 50 members of Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group marched to the Capitol Friday to raise awareness about the effects of global warming and to encourage students as well as legislators to get involved.

With the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen only a few weeks away, University of Wisconsin senior Niels Holck, an exchange student from Denmark, organized the march to help raise student awareness about climate change and global warming.

Holck said he believes active protesting can mobilize people to become involved, which is one reason why he proposed the idea.

“This is an active way to make an event where you actually involve people in protesting and you can raise awareness and educate and start building a movement at the same time,” Holck said.

He also stressed the United State’s need to lower emissions and take a leadership role at the conference, which will take place Dec. 7 to Dec. 18.

“Too little is happening, especially in the U.S., regarding the issues of global warming and running out of energy,” Holck said.

Five speakers, including Holck, shared their views on climate change and how even the simplest things, like writing to a state legislator, can have an impact.

Also speaking at the march, Diane Farsetta, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice’s campaign coordinator, encouraged students to watch what is happening in the state Legislature regarding nuclear power.

For Joy Rifkin, UW junior and another event organizer, the significance of the march rested in the impact she said going green can have, not just on the environment, but on the economy as well.

“With the economy … having green jobs come out would be incredible for the United States and we need to be a leader in that kind of movement,” Rifkin said.

Rifkin also stressed the imminence of action, considering the implications of delay, and the choices at hand.

“It’s a really important time in American culture where we have some choices that we need to make,” Rifkin said. “We’re facing climate change, and we can either turn away from it or make the right decision and go to the renewable energy that we have.”

The march was part of WISPIRG’s Big Red, Go Green campaign, which aims to educate students about energy consumption, according to Sami McKeough, UW sophomore and a coordinator of the campaign.

Big Red, Go Green is also sponsoring an energy competition in the UW residence halls, which McKeough said will start in February.

A renewable energy research group is another part of the campaign. The group will measure the impact of passive solar heating on the pools at the Natatorium and the Southeast Recreational Facility.

Laura Goldberg, UW sophomore and co-coordinator of Big Red, Go Green, said the energy crisis is a critical issue students can have an impact on if they get involved.

“This is a pressing issue for anybody anywhere in the world and students are people who can have an active role in … helping fix the changing climate in years to come,” Goldberg said.