Global Climate Strike

The Global Climate Strike entreaties us all to walk out of our workplaces or homes and join school strikers on the streets to demand an end of fossil fuels. As a retired educator and senior citizen, I plan to attend.

Greta Thunberg was a 15-year-old Swedish student when she began Friday school strikes demanding persons in power take on the task of making meaningful changes to stop the out-of-control carbon emissions destroying our planet. Thunberg has said: “Our house is on fire.”

Since she asked us to act to quell that fire, Friday strikes have increased exponentially throughout the world, with thousands of young people demanding action. That crusade has morphed into a worldwide week of action Sept. 20-27 to demand climate justice.

Now the young people are asking adults to participate.

Eugene’s Global Climate Strike Kickoff Rally is Sept. 20, with additional events occurring throughout the week. An unprecedented coalition of groups from all ages and backgrounds has worked on the events. We all must place ourselves in the streets, disrupting our daily lives, particularly on Sept. 20.

If we all did this, our elected officials would be forced to end their support of the fossil fuel industry and their complicity in the warming of the globe.

As Thunberg has said, “If not you, then who? If not now, then when?”

Schedules are available by searching globalclimatestrike.net. 

Martha Dragovich

Eugene