DULUTH (Minn.) – A friend helped young environmentalists at UMD keep the conversation about climate change alive today.
The Magic Smelt Puppet Troope created this owl puppet that was larger than life. It attracted many people to the Kirby Student Center’s Duluth Power Dialogue.
Junior Alexandra Stellrecht explained that we wanted to find a way of bringing art and performance into the environmental discussion. It’s really hard to just tell people statistics and facts and have them take it to heart so by doing something that was a little out of the box or unexpected
The owl represents the responsibility humans have when future generations look back at us and the impacts of climate change and nonrenewable energy sources.
“Engage students into some local utilities, we’re trying to get them involved and understand what actually goes into that and how can we fix it, said Junior Collin Bryhn. We could really fix some large areas of the grid.
According to organizers, it made some people on their way to finals stop and listen. This is the first step towards a dialogue that they feel is long overdue.
The Magic Smelt Puppet Troupe creates the smelt puppets that are used in Duluth’s “Magic Smelt Run Parade”, and that event is returning to Canal Park this Sunday.