BLACKSBURG -- It was cold on the Drillfield Tuesday.

Not chilly. Cold.

Turn your back to the whipping wind, pull your stocking cap over your ears, stuff your gloved hands in your pockets cold.

To a thermometer it was 37 degrees Fahrenheit, but the wind made it feel at least 10 degrees colder. And gusts near 30 miles per hour made sure a person felt every degree of difference.

Which made it a challenge to get people worked up about global warming.

Nevertheless, Bryce Carter and Brian Smyth hauled an orange kayak to a crossroads in the paths that traverse the Drillfield and set up shop.

It was the kickoff event for a week of action built around the Campus Climate Challenge, an attempt to raise awareness of climate issues on 540 campuses across the United States and Canada.

The intent was to dramatize the effects of melting ice caps and expanding seas by putting someone in the kayak and then carrying the kayak around, and then talking to people about rising waters.

But there was a hitch. The original kayak wouldn't fit in the truck that was supposed to bring it.

The owner of the backup kayak didn't want anyone hauled or dragged around in his boat. So there would be no dramatic presentation.

The first time Carter tried to tape a poster on the side of the backup kayak, the wind jerked it out of his hands and carried it, tumbling across the Drillfield, across the road and on past the library.

The environmentally minded folks at the boat couldn't have liked the idea of unintentional littering, but the wind simply carried the poster faster than its pursuer could run.

"If you guys want to run off, I don't blame you," Carter said to the half dozen friends who huddled near the kayak.

But they stayed. They passed out fliers until they had to leave for class. Or they stood around offering moral support.

Even without an occupant, a nearly florescent kayak on the nearly brown grass attracted at least one interested student. She was interested in the boat.

Carter gave her a short explanation of what he was doing, then handed her a fistful of literature about a bill in the Virginia General Assembly that promotes renewable energy.

In half an hour or so, the event was over. Carter and Jessica Folmar were standing around the kayak talking about how things went.

Carter pronounced it a success. They'd handed out 200 cards with contact information for state senators and delegates and they'd introduced a few students to movies and lectures scheduled for the rest of the week.

The guys who drove by in the burnt orange Hummer didn't seem to notice.