Global Climate Strike

Millions+of+citizens+strike+in+the+streets+to+send+a+message+to+governments+and+corporations+around+the+world.+Photo+courtesy+of+CNN+News.

Millions of citizens strike in the streets to send a message to governments and corporations around the world. Photo courtesy of CNN News.

On Friday, September 20th, more than 4 million people in more than 160 countries participated in the Global Climate Strike, started by 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist, Greta Thunberg, as part of her Fridays for Future movement. The strikes are happening during the whole week of September 20 through September 27. 

In August of 2018, Greta Thunberg staged her first Fridays for Future school strike. She sat in front of the Swedish Parliament with a sign saying “skolstrejk för klimatet” or, “school strike for the climate.” The Thunberg and her Fridays for Future movement became viral on social media. For the strike, students are walking out of school on Fridays to call for change and for governments to enact legislation to slow and reverse the effects of climate change. 

The strikes come before the UN Climate Action Summit, which is on the 23 of September. Global leaders went to New York City with plans on how each nation is going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 and work to the goal of zero net emissions by 2050. Thunberg and others spoke at the Summit. 

In Chicago, students marched for climate justice and for the Clean Energy Jobs Act. Protesters met at Grant Park at South Columbus Drive and East Roosevelt Road and marched to Federal Plaza. The Chicago protests were organized by the Illinois chapter of the Youth Climate Action Program.

Among these environmental activists were a dozen Parker students and a few teachers who made the ride up to Grant Park to protest for what they believed in. Sophomore Ruby Radis, who “Going to the climate strike made me feel like as a teenager and a student that my voice was heard and I really enjoyed being there with a lot of people.”

One of the faculty members accompanying the kids was Upper School history teacher Jeanne Barr, who took six students to the strike. “It became clear that no one had asked the administration if kids could go and so I asked and I ended up taking a small group of kids to the strike with the permission of the school,” Barr said. “This is exactly the type of event that our students should be involved in. This is exactly what we should be doing.”

After attending the strike, Barr reflects on her experience of marching with others for environmental change. “I was really happy to be there. Those moments were about showing up – that’s what protests and marches are for,” Barr said. “The hope is, by contributing my person to that mass, it just gives a little bit more weight, literally and metaphorically, to the argument that we have to do something like yesterday about climate change.”