youth climate strike

About the School Strike for Climate and the rising climate generation.

On March 15th, 1.6 million students around the world put down their pencils and skipped school in unison to protest climate injustice. More than 2,000 School Strikes for Climate occurred in 123 countries. March 15th is significant in that it was a school day, enabling students to skip class to demand climate action and the protection of their futures. The day also happened to be the Ides of March, the Roman day for the payment of debts. For students who attended a strike, the 15th was a day for settling debts with policymakers and legislators - who owed them their futures and depriving them of a clean and inhabitable Earth.

Over 100 cities from nearly all 50 states in the United States stood in solidarity on the 15th with countries located on every continent - New Zealand, India, Israel, Luxembourg, Italy, Scotland, Nigeria, Sweden, Turkey, and Spain to name to a few. Strikes around the world protested for climate action in each of their respective governments, but the US Climate Strike outlined their specific agenda in their platform. Strikes in the United States called for a national Green New Deal, an end to fossil fuel infrastructure, a national emergency on climate change, climate education, the preservation of public lands and wildlife, and clean water supply. For decades politicians and government authorities neglected to take steps toward resolving the impending global crisis of climate change, and by striking, today’s generation declared they would no longer tolerate this inaction.

Closer to home, thousands of students from the Washington Metropolitan area attended the strike on the U.S. Capitol. From Oakton, senior Catherine Xiang attended the strike and said, “I went to the climate strike to demand action for our future and ensure that it included renewable solutions.” Crowds of students, young people, teachers, parents, and adults alike rallied in front of the Capitol, chanting mantras about democracy and climate action. Later, they heard from the teenage leaders who had organized the DC strike, activist music performer Rebel Rae, Havana Chapman-Edwards “The Tiny Diplomat,” and Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar. During her speech, 12-year-old co-director and co-founder of the US Climate Strike Haven Coleman said, “Today, the tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of kids who are striking around the world are doing it not because we want to skip school, but because we are scared.” Today’s youth have learned from their predecessors’ mistakes, and will not let their futures or their Earth be taken from them.