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Youth Activism

60,000-Strong Fridays For Future Protest In Hamburg, Germany: Where Are You USA?

"What is it going to take for the U.S. to rise up like this?" wondered the Durham, N.C. branch of Extinction Rebellion. "We are in a climate catastrophe and people around the world, particularly in the global south are facing the brunt NOW!  January 2020 was the warmest since we've recorded temperatures." Thunberg, who's in her 79th week of Fridays for Future actions, noted in her remarks to the Hamburg crowd that the weekly actions have spread globally. "For almost one and half years young people have been striking from school all over the world," she said. "The world is failing on ensuring us a future. And I honestly don't understand how the people in power can continue like now. How they can look their children in the eyes while they are stealing their future?" she asked.

Chicago High School Students Hold Sit-In In Defense Of Students Who Refused To Stand For National Anthem

Students at Chicago’s Nicholas Senn High School carried out a sit-in on Wednesday in response to a teacher telling a Hispanic student, Yésica Salazar, 17, to “go back to your country” after Salazar refused to stand for the American national anthem during an assembly on January 30. Another student who also refused to stand, Tionda Cobb, 18, was questioned about her status in the school’s free lunch program and was told she should stand because, “people had died for the country.”

Ninth Circuit Dismisses Youth Climate Suit, While Agreeing Government Policy Is Destroying The Planet

Eugene, Oregon - Today, a divided panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals “reluctantly” concluded that the youth plaintiffs’ case in Juliana v. United States must be made to the Congress, the President, or to the electorate at large. The decision finds federal courts cannot provide the youth with a remedy for their climate change injuries. In her dissent, District Judge Josephine L. Staton wrote that the youth plaintiffs brought suit to enforce the most basic structural principal embedded in our system of liberty...

How Generation Z Is Leading The Climate Movement

For the first decade and a half of her life, Jamie Margolin was like any other U.S. teen living in the suburbs. She went to school, made friends and got involved in sports. Yet all the while, beneath the surface, lurked the fear of a looming climate catastrophe — one that she felt powerless to stop. For a while, Margolin was able to keep this fear at bay. Her focus on school and athletics certainly helped. Then came election night 2016, when the protective wall she had built around herself finally began to crumble.

Fossil Fuel Industry Shifts from Climate Denial to ‘Youthwashing’

Elaine Brown of the publication The Intercept. In her recent article titled How the Fossil Fuel Industry is Attempting to Buy the Global Youth Climate Movement, Brown reported that Student Energy has its central offices in Alberta, Canada. That province is home to Canada’s tar sands, one of the dirtiest sources of oil in the world. Student Energy took more than $285,000 in corporate money from those, such as tar sands production companies Suncor and Shell, according to its most recent annual report. Brown called this a new form of youth washing.

Young Indigenous Activists Lead Climate Justice Action In Alaska

“We do not want to stop our ways of life. That’s why we’re here.” Seventeen-year-old Quannah Chasing Horse’s voice broke as she stood on stage in front of a sea of delegates at the Alaska Federation of Natives 2019 Convention in Fairbanks, Alaska. “We shouldn’t have to tell people in charge that we want to survive. It should be our number-one right. We should not have to fight for this.” In October, at one of the largest gatherings of Indigenous people in the U.S., the Hans Gwich’in and Lakota Sioux teenager stood with 15-year-old Nanieezh Peter (Neetsaii Gwich’in and Diné)...

Climate Change On Trial: Can The Courts Save The Planet?

Can ordinary citizens use the courts to force their leaders to fight climate change? In the most revolutionary climate ruling to date, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands delivered an emphatic “yes” on December 20, upholding a court order forcing the Dutch government to cut national carbon emissions.  In the wake of the decision, a group of children and young people in the US is hoping to gain traction in a similar legal battle (Juliana v. United States) as they claim the right to live in the same climate as previous generations. 

The US Needs Protests

In recent months mass protests involving millions of people have emerged in countries such as Haiti, Ecuador, and Chile. In each instance the spark was unique to that nation. Haitians are angry that officials stole millions of dollars from Venezuela’s Petro Caribe project which was meant to meet the needs of the people. Ecuadoreans rose up after their president accepted IMF loans with the usual strings of austerity and suffering attached. Political corruption, theft from the people, the desire for real democracy, and interference from the United States and its allies all play a role in these events.

Climate Strikers Walked Out of School. Next, Let’s Walk Off the Job.

Climate Strikes are happening for the same reason labor strikes often happen: Negotiations have broken down. CEOs profiting from the exploitation of workers and the Earth are unwilling to cede to demands that would improve the lives of those affected by their practices. And politicians are unwilling to put the good of ordinary people first. 

Greta Thunberg Isn’t The Only Voice Of Her Generation

On Friday, my 12-year-old son carried his handmade cardboard protest sign to one of the thousands of climate strikes around the world, along with five of his classmates. His sign read, “Where you gonna hide from the hell you made?” This die-hard rock ’n’ roll fan had tapped an obscure song by his favorite band—Queen—called “White Man,” about the genocide of Native Americans, and picked out the perfect line to describe his rage at our human-made climate crisis. My angry preteen was one of an estimated 4 million people who marched all over the planet Friday in what is considered the largest climate change-related protest action in history.

Student Climate Activists Confront Board Of Education

Student climate advocacy group MoCo Students on Climate held a rally Friday to demand climate action from Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).  Students gathered with signs outside the east entrance of the Board of Education office in Rockville. Rosie Clemans-Cope, a sixth grader at Thomas W. Pyle Middle School in Bethesda, said she’s negotiating with her school principal to allow walkouts.  Clemans-Cope led student walkouts for climate change last year at her elementary school. She met 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg two weeks ago, who inspired her to do the same in middle school.  “Getting an agreement with administration is very, very hard to do,” said the 11-year-old. “But I’m not going to give up because talking to kids about the climate crisis is crucial to our futures.”

Greta Thunberg: “I Am Just A Messenger…Our Very Future Is At Risk”

Recently I’ve seen many rumors circulating about me and enormous amounts of hate. This is no surprise to me. I know that since most people are not aware of the full meaning of the climate crisis (which is understandable since it has never been treated as a crisis) a school strike for the climate would seem very strange to people in general. So let me make some things clear about my school strike. In may 2018 I was one of the winners in a writing competition about the environment held by Svenska Dagbladet, a Swedish newspaper.

How The Youth-Led Climate Strikes Became A Global Mass Movement

It began as a call to action from a group of youth activists scattered across the globe, and soon became what is shaping up to be the largest planet-wide protest for the climate the world has ever seen. The Global Climate Strike, which kicks off on Sept. 20, will not be the first time people all over the world have taken action for the climate on a single day. But if things play out the way organizers hope, it could mark a turning point for the grassroots resistance to fossil fuels. “Strikes are happening almost everywhere you can think of,” said Jamie Margolin, a high school student from Seattle who played a role in initiating this global movement.

Stand With Student Climate Strikers

In the coming days, thousands of young people across our region are going to be taking the streets to demand bold action to confront the climate crisis. On Friday, September 20, young people are leading a march to the Capitol to demand a green new deal, respect for indigenous land, environmental justice, protection of biodiversity and sustainable agriculture. Then on Monday, September 23rd, young people are joining people of all ages for a historic mobilization to #ShutDownDC for climate justice. Tell DCPS and Other DMV School Officials: Don’t Discipline Climate Leadership

How To Start An Anti-Racist Student Group In Your School

The painful truth about public education is that racism is as common as bored students and overworked teachers. While many in our home of Seattle take pride in the city’s “progressive” reputation, the students of Seattle Public Schools, especially students of Color, know reality starkly contrasts with this reputation. In fact, Seattle Public Schools is home to some of the worst racial disparities in the entire country – and the district has known about them for decades and decades. Yet little has changed – exemplified recently by a white teacher calling 911 on a 10 to 11-year-old Black child.
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