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SIERRA CLUB
Boston resident Varshini Prakash led the US demonstrations urging leaders to act against climate change. |
Millions of students -- from grade school to college -- skipped school Friday to join older environmental activists to demand the world's leaders to do something to stop climate change.
Students and activists marched through the streets of hundreds of cities, from Berlin to Mumbai, India, from Melbourne, Australia to New York City.
"It's amazing," Varshini Prakash told Al Jazeera of Friday's attendance in New York where 250,000 marched. "This tremendous amount exceeded expectations. I woke up this morning to see my Twitter feed flooded with images [from] around the world."
"Young people in more than 140 countries are taking to the streets to demand that our political leaders treat the climate crisis like the emergency that it is. Fossil fuel CEOs will stop at nothing to squeeze every last drop of money from the Earth—but our generation is mobilizing by the thousands and will strike again and again until we win," said Prakash, co-founder and executive director of Sunrise Movement in the United States.
The protests on Friday come ahead of a Youth Climate Summit on Saturday (Sept. 21) and a United Nations Climate Action Summit on Monday. Another strike is planned for Sept. 27.
Prakash is the Executive Director and co-founder of Sunrise, a movement of young people working to stop climate change, take back democracy from Big Oil, and elect leaders who will fight for the health and well-being of the protesters' generation. Under Prakash's leadership, Sunrise was one of the organizers of the demonstrations in the US.
Sunrise is part of a new generation of youth-led climate change movements that emerged out of the failure of the global political system to address the climate crisis. They’re the ones who made the Green New Deal a household term.
"The momentum from today shows that any candidate for the American presidency who wants to win our generation's votes must commit to making the Green New Deal the number-one priority of their administration," said Prakash, 26, who helped organize the strike in the United States.
She said "a new movement is emerging as political institutions fail," adding that leaders needed to "wake up and grow up, and take this seriously."
Other young people who took part in the demonstration reinforced Parkash's message.
“We’re not going to be the apathetic generation that watches as our world collapses,” said 15-year-old Helen Deng of San Jose, Calif., a Youth Climate Strike organizer who spoke at Friday’s rally at San Jose's City Hall.
Supriya Patel, partnerships coordinator of Earth Uprising in the United States told Common Dreams: "I strike for my family in India who are forced to breathe toxic air every day. I strike against the systems that cause them to be hit first and worst by the climate crisis. I strike because though the climate crisis will hit marginalized communities the most, corporate greed is universal."
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| SUNRISE MOVEMENT |
She said "a new movement is emerging as political institutions fail," adding that leaders needed to "wake up and grow up, and take this seriously."
Other young people who took part in the demonstration reinforced Parkash's message.
“We’re not going to be the apathetic generation that watches as our world collapses,” said 15-year-old Helen Deng of San Jose, Calif., a Youth Climate Strike organizer who spoke at Friday’s rally at San Jose's City Hall.
Supriya Patel, partnerships coordinator of Earth Uprising in the United States told Common Dreams: "I strike for my family in India who are forced to breathe toxic air every day. I strike against the systems that cause them to be hit first and worst by the climate crisis. I strike because though the climate crisis will hit marginalized communities the most, corporate greed is universal."
In 2004, India was devastated with floods. That environmental disaster made an impressioin on Prakash.
“In a cultural and personal way, I began to feel the climate crisis a few years ago when there was this tremendous series of floods that absolutely devastated Chennai—my father’s home town—and Pondicherry," said Prakash.
"I was deeply affected, seeing the terrible levels of inundation that sank streets familiar to me from visits to Chennai—especially the images of mothers and children having to walk miles to find safety. Everything they were saying would not come about for another 10, 20, or 30 years was occurring right before our eyes in South India and in the United States as well.”
"I was deeply affected, seeing the terrible levels of inundation that sank streets familiar to me from visits to Chennai—especially the images of mothers and children having to walk miles to find safety. Everything they were saying would not come about for another 10, 20, or 30 years was occurring right before our eyes in South India and in the United States as well.”
“My dad would tell me stories about his great-uncle who protested against the British and got scolded by his parents. Those are my roots,” said the Boston-born Prakash.
As an undergrad at the University of Massachusetts, she took on the fossil fuel industry by pushing her university to stop investing in coal, oil, and gas.
Varshini has been a leading voice for young Americans, including last fall when she helped lead a mass demonstration for the Green New Deal that went viral and put climate change on the map for Congress.
“Our message is clear: our movement is growing, and young people in the U.S. are coming together by the hundreds of thousands — millions — to make clear that if politicians want our generation’s support, they need to treat this crisis like the emergency that it is and fight for a Green New Deal.”
Varshini has been a leading voice for young Americans, including last fall when she helped lead a mass demonstration for the Green New Deal that went viral and put climate change on the map for Congress.
“Our message is clear: our movement is growing, and young people in the U.S. are coming together by the hundreds of thousands — millions — to make clear that if politicians want our generation’s support, they need to treat this crisis like the emergency that it is and fight for a Green New Deal.”
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