Air Date: Week of September 5, 2008

A protester concerned with global warming and polar bear habitat. (Photo: Bobby Bascomb)

Protesters took to the streets of St. Paul to speak out against the Republican Administration's policies on war and the environment.

Transcript

CURWOOD: It's Living on Earth, I'm Steve Curwood.

[MUSIC AND CROWD]

CURWOOD: Political conventions draw protestors, and the liveliest crowds tend to demonstrate at the gathering of the party that holds the White House, and this year was no exception. While there were a few signs and some street theatre during the Democratic gathering in Denver, there were full-scale marches and some spots of violence at the Republican event in St. Paul. And some of the demonstrators had the environment on their minds. Living on Earth’s convention team caught up with a few of them.

LEIERWOOD: My name is Mina Leierwood, and I’m from Minneapolis. I’m dressed up as a polar bear today. I’ve got my polar bear headdress and my face paint and my white outfit, and I’m very concerned about the vice presidential pick for presidential contender McCain. She doesn’t believe in global warming. She wants to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refugee. That’s one of our places we like to live as polar bears. And she likes hunting, so I’m scared of her.

MARTIN: I’m George Martin from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I’m a national co-chair of United for Peace and Justice, which is the largest anti-war coalition in the US. We have a campaign called No War, No Global Warming. You know as we talk about ending nuclear weapons, it’s the greatest threat to all of us here on Earth. And we haven’t resolved the problem in terms of nuclear power. There is no verified, legitimized means of storage of nuclear waste in the United States, and at the same time every nuclear power plant is potentially a nuclear bomb.

COLLEEN: My name is Colleen, and I’m from Waukesha, Wisconsin. I’m out here today talking about America standing for everyone. We need to get back to making America strong. Alternate types of energy, no more oil, no drilling, no oil. Getting off of oil as soon and as quickly as possible.

[MUSIC AND CROWD]

CURWOOD: Those voices from the Twin Cities were recorded by our convention team, Bobby Bascomb and Jeff Young.