The windshields of cars parked in the lot west of Rice Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah were adorned with purple flowers on the third day of school, Aug. 23.

A note attached to the flowers included a link to www.theclimatecampaign.com, the website for a movement designed to encourage conversation about climate change. Students from rival school Brigham Young University (BYU) traveled to the U to leave the flowers in an effort to create a partnership between the two schools.

Nicholas Huey, the director of the project, came up with the idea in a class he was taking. He became passionate about the cause and decided to expand the idea.

Huey reached out to Colin Green, a student at the U and a representative of the school’s Sustainability Office, last Spring to collaborate in the effort. Since then, Green and 20 more U students have joined the campaign in response to the flower challenge.

“This campaign has the potential to bring climate change to the forefront of people’s minds,” said Green. “It has the potential to make this issue a common conversation at dinner tables across the state.”

The flowers were purple to represent the schools’ colors, blue and red, mixed together.

“We couldn’t figure out how to communicate to both sides that this was not a party issue,” said Huey. “BYU and the U just kind of came to us one day as the perfect parallel to our current government system. We even sport the same colors of red and blue. So, we tentatively approached both campuses with the idea of teaming up to show Utahns it was possible and the response was phenomenal.”

The website listed on the note includes a space for students to sign up to be apart of the movement.

“Joining rivals will be explosive,” said Huey. “If de-dehumanizing each other is gonna help fix our emissions problem, then we’ve got to do it. Rivalry is a luxury we can’t afford.”

Green shares those feelings and hopes cooperation between the schools can make a difference.

“Let’s compete on Saturday night but during the week, let’s build a sustainable future together,” he said.

Currently, the Climate Change Campaign consists primarily of U and BYU students, but Huey has plans to expand its reach to the entire state.

“Our end goal is to have an environment in Utah that is conducive to sustainability,” Huey said. For that to happen, politicians need to feel safe passing climate friendly legislation without fear of backlash from their constituents. By utilizing the rivalry between Utes and Cougars to illustrate that this is not a party issue, we hope to raise discussion about our climate in the public sphere, and get more people clamoring for action.”

[email protected]