A group of environmental activists and students protested what they claim is the federal government's lack of action in fighting climate change. It coincided with a climate conference at the University of South Florida.
(SOUND: What do we want? Clean energy? When do we want it? Now....)
About a dozen activists gathered on USF's Tampa campus in an attempt to prod the federal government to promote clean energy policies to combat global warming. Frank Jackalone is with the Sierra Club's Florida Chapter.
"What we need is action from the federal government, action from President Obama, to address the pollution that is ravaging our country, that has been harming us all along," he said, "and now is changing our climate as well."
The protesters then picketed U.S. Senator Marco Rubio's branch office at USF before going to the site of the National Climate Assessment Regional Town Hall being held on the campus. There, climate experts dicussed a draft report stating that Florida is especially vulnerable to the impacts of global warming, including sea level rise, extreme heat, and intrusion of saltwater on our freshwater aquifer.
