Several SIU students held a unique earth day event on Thursday. All dressed in black and carrying a cardboard coffin, the students walked through the SIU-C Campus to call attention to the number of animals on the planet, that have gone extinct. Ash is a grad student at SIU-C and says more action is needed to stop more species from disappearing."Buying enough reusable straws is not going to save us. So this procession is to mourn the animals that are currently extinct, or critically endangered."
SIU Professor Cade Bursell says as we mark Earth Day, it's also important to think about what's been lost.
"To acknowledge the grief that we have for the planet, before we can, or while we act."
At each stop on campus, the group read an original poem mentioning specific animals that are gone forever.
