Students all over the globe walk out of schools on March 15, 2019, in demand for action on climate change.
1 million students in over 112 countries walked out of schools on March 15, making it one of the largest environmental protests in history. These events were inspired by 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, an activist who did weekly sit-ins outside of the Swedish Parliament, protesting the government’s little action of climate change.
This movement spread to the United States, reaching over 100 cities with organized school walkouts. Students of Pleasant Valley were unable to participate due to spring break.
Many questions stem from this movement, including the following: why is this a major issue with the youth and why students are demanding more?
The rise of floods, sea level, wildfires, droughts, and extreme heat will continue to get worse and become immediate dangers of all lives on earth.
Climate change scientists confirm that the people on earth only have 12 years to limit climate change before it’s too late to resolve the pressing issue. The youngest woman elected to Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, spoke on the effects that climate change will have on upcoming generations.
“Millennials and Gen Z and all these folks that come after us are looking up, and we’re like, ‘The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change, and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it?’ “ she said.
PV senior Haleema Waheed believes that the uprising climate change is being ignored by the U.S. government. “They [the U.S. government] don’t realize how important it is to take action now before it becomes too late,” she said.
The youth find it hard to ignore the increasing amount of damaging environmental events, including more extinct animals, higher sea levels, more trash found in the oceans, more flooding within Midwest, and even more damaging results of climate change.
Waheed thinks that the reason why this problem affects the younger generations more is due to the fear of not having an Earth to live on. “The youth strongly cares about this pressing issue because we don’t want us or the Earth to die”, she said. The youth are taking control of their future and demand for a better Earth for all.
