A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
Meadow, Akwesasne (center about the letter 'R' in the word STRIKE) traveled with her Ista and Auntie to take part in the NYC's Climate Strike – Fridays for Future on September 20, 2019. Photo by DESMOG.
Above are SUNY Potsdam Global Climate Strike demonstrators Josh Kim, Link Romano, Chynna Tlmastyk, Sarah Haller, Amber Rudolph, Kristina Matunics, Alana Castillo, Samantha Marill, Juliana Spinella and Sasha Van Kott. They are holding up a banner that they want to cover with signatures and send to Greta Thunberg, who started the Global Climate Strike. Photo: Andy Gardner.
A demonstrator signs a parachute at SUNY Potsdam's Global Climate Strike event. Photo: Andy Gardner.
In Plattsburgh, local high school students organized a walk and protest, here Lila voiced her concerns on climate change at SUNY Plattsburgh. She shared her concerns for Indigenous people who are often the most severely affected. Photo:MJKS.
At the Plattsburgh rally, Mike shared his concerns in a forthright manner – clearly stating what he thinks needs to be done. Photo: MJKS.
Young people attend a climate strike rally as Afghan security forces guard them in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 20, 2019. Photo: Social Media.
The exact number of participants worldwide will be hard to get. But the event was truly global and astonishingly well organized: There were over 2,500 events scheduled in over 163 countries on all seven continents, shown here is Krakow, Poland. Photo: Social Media.
In Brazil, youth take to the streets to protest inaction by adults and world leaders. Photo: Social Media.
Students take part in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: Social Media.
By Andy Gardner
Demonstrators around the area joined millions around the world during the week of Sept. 20 to 27 and went on a "Global Climate Strike."
The events are being held during that week to urge leaders worldwide to take action on the threat posed by mankind's contribution to climate change and other serious environmental issues.
The event was started by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenager who is now 16 years old.
Thunberg started her environmental activism in her home county with the "School Strike for Climate" movement. According to a May 24 article in Time Magazine, Thunberg "began her strike outside the country's parliament in Stockholm in August 2018 and has said that she will continue to strike until Sweden is aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Since then, her singular action has spread into an international climate movement, organized by young people around the world. This strike followed the last coordinated event on March 15, which saw over 1.6 million people across 133 countries turn out at demonstrations according to organizers."
At SUNY Potsdam, members of the college's Environmental Club organized their contribution to the global event.
"(Earth) is something we live on, it's our homes outside of our homes," said SUNY Potsdam Environmental Club President Morgan Gregg. "Protecting it and fighting for it is something we should all be doing."
"It doesn't matter who's fault it is, we all need to change," said Environmental Club Vice President James McSpedon. "We believe if a small percentage of people change, others will follow."
At their demonstration in front of the school's Student Union, they displayed a banner where they urged anyone to sign it who supports increased emission standards and working towards positive global environmental action. After the Potsdam demonstration, they planned to hang it in the school library so anyone else who wants to sign it can do so. They plan to send the banner to Thunberg after the global strike week wraps up.
"We want to let her know all the people at SUNY Potsdam who support her," McSpedon said.
They also set out a parachute from a Diversity Day event on campus and urged demonstrators to sign it.
"That's to show community that we're all in this together," Gregg said.
According to 350.org, a major environmental advocacy group and a co-organizer, more than 4 million people worldwide took part. There were 40,000 people striking in France; 2,600 in Ukraine; 5,000 in South Africa; 10,000 in Turkey; 5,000 in Japan; 100,000 in London; 330,000 in Australia; 250,000 in NYC; and 1.4 million in Germany, 350.org told Vox.com.
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