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The voice of protest is the voice of the people. From Howard Zinn to Angela Davis, thought
leaders and activists across the world have understood that protest is not just some march--a
mere inconvenience for commuters--but instead a necessity for the fight for freedom, to
make people's voices heard. Roughly 7.6 million people took to the streets all over the world
in September to make that voice heard. To urge governments to look towards the evidence,
to look towards the future, and to understand that a climate crisis is upon us. But how
did we get here? 7.6 million is a significant number and the strikes are part of a larger
string of actions that have turned the world’s gaze towards the problem of climate change.
And the momentum only seems to be growing, with another global climate strike slated
to counter the industrial gluttony of Black Friday. So, with these realities in mind,
I want to take a look at the current state of environmental protest, understand its impact,
and figure out what’s the next step after this newest explosion of climate strikes.
“The climate strikes aren’t asking you to go vegan or change a lightbulb. They’re
saying that’s the baseline at this point and we have to look further to hold our elected
officials accountable.” That’s Jerome Foster II, founder, and editor-in-chief of
the Climate Reporter, Founder of One Million of Us, as well as a climate strike organizer
for Fridays for the Future in Washington D.C. Needless to say, Jerome has his hands in a
lot of climate action pies in the D.C. area. On top of all his work, he also happens to
be a senior in high school. In many ways, Jerome seems to echo the mold of many youth
activists that have taken a stand against the reluctance of world figureheads to act
strongly and ethically on climate change. He’s young and he’s tired of global climate
inaction. And this new wave of climate activists seems unwavering. They’re lit by a fire
of frustration. A fire that many point to Greta Thunberg for igniting. Young people
all over the globe have been walking out of their schools every Friday to pressure their
governing bodies to create bold climate action plans. This youth-led movement known as Fridays
for Future continues to build as young activists like Jerome start to establish themselves
as serious organizers across the globe. But to believe that the current protests are solely
due to the workings of Greta Thunberg would be folly. Thunberg is a piece of the puzzle,
but a leader does not make a movement. The September climate strikes, and for that matter,
prior environmental actions like those aiming to prevent the construction of the Keystone
XL and Dakota Access pipelines were the product of thousands of hours of hard work done by
people at every level, especially communities of color and indigenous communities. Environmental
protest continues to forge a path towards an ethical coexistence with and on this earth
through the interwoven efforts of activists like Jamie Margolin, founder of Zero Hour;
Wanda Culp, an indigenous activist fighting to protect the Alaskan Tongass from logging
and industrial use, or the 20 environmental and land rights activists murdered in Brazil
in 2018 including those with Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement who were shot dead because
the group was deemed a terrorist organization. So the state of environmental protest around
the globe is one that seems unprecedented. Cities and local movements are interconnecting
in solidarity. From Nairobi, Kenya to Melbourne, Australia a loud rallying cry has been sounded
to shake the world into overdrive. Asking simply that their governments take action
to mitigate the climate crisis.
But are governments listening? Has this new slew of climate protests been effective? And
when it comes down to it, can we really know for sure? Lily Gardner, a Kentucky-based organizer
from the Sunrise Movement, thinks the protests and actions have had an impact on how politicians
and citizens view the growing climate crisis. You might recognize her from this action in
Mitch McConnell’s office. “As to change that has been coming out of the protest, I
think the fact that we even see a CNN town hall that’s entirely dedicated to the climate
crisis, that presidential candidates are opening their remarks at debates with mentions of
the climate crisis, that we’ve made it on the front page of the New York Times. I think
those very public pronouncements and integration of the climate crisis into people’s consciousness
is something that we hadn’t seen before the strikes.” In many ways, I too feel this
hope in the US. These new mass demonstrations seem to actually be pushing the mainstream
towards a more aggressive stance on climate action. But I’m simultaneously wary that
I’m viewing this apparent momentum with rose-tinted glasses. According to the International
Center for Non-Profit Law, US state governments continue to push for bills that would criminalize
protesting near pipelines and “critical infrastructure,” with even more egregious
legislation like South Dakota’s recently passed SB 189 that would allow the state to
go after “riot boosters” or protest funders for aiding in any disruptive protest. Across
the country over 100 bills attempting to restrict protests have risen to the fore in recent
years. While legislatures have struck down many of them, 16 anti-protest bills were enacted.
But elsewhere, the recent climate strikes seem to be shaking the system at its core.
Thanks to the highly publicized actions of groups like Extinction Rebellion, the United
Kingdom declared a climate emergency, with countries like Austria, Spain, and Argentina
following suit. With over 1000 climate emergency declarations across local and national jurisdictions,
the pressure of protests seems to be pushing global governments to recognize the necessity
for climate action. But of course, many of these declarations are non-binding, so, much
like the Paris Agreement, we’ll have to see whether these pronouncements actually
create tangible change.
Understanding that this mass mobilization of climate activists is just a start then,
is important. The momentum and desire are there, but shaping the raw energy of 7.6 million
people around the world into an actual transition from a carbon reliant capitalist world to
one of economic, social, and climate justice will be difficult. Jerome Foster II wants
to channel the energy of the marches into a strong voting bloc with his One Million
of Us campaign, “The only reason why politicians care about anything is if they get money or
votes. So young people don’t really have that much money to put into a system, but
they have a lot of votes…One Million of Us is an initiative to re-engage young people
on every level from presidential elections, to senate elections, congressional elections
to teach them about the importance of why they should vote and how they should vote.”
But as he admitted to me, the way this movement continues to be successful is if adults join
the struggle. “Adults have to join. We have to be bigger than just saying ‘young people
are fighting for our future’ because it’s not our future and it’s not just young people…
If we are going to replace elected officials we need someone to replace them with. We need
people like AOC and Ilhan Omar… Big champions of the environmental movement.” Meanwhile,
Lily Gardner seeks to continue to mobilize young people across the U.S. “We are hoping
that this is not just the one day, Sept. 20th but the start to several strikes that are
going to be happening this year. We are hoping to enter an era in which students across the
world are taking active action in the face of the climate crisis. We’re calling it
in the United States, Generation Green New Deal. We will not be Generation Z, the final
generation, instead we’re reclaiming this we’re becoming Gen GND.” Jerome and Lily
reflect the countless approaches organizers are using to translate this growing movement
into tangible policy and systemic change. The Green New Deal, in many ways, is a product
of this renewed vigor of climate protests. As a proposal and as an idea, it frontlines
the interconnected reality of climate change. It’s not just about curbing greenhouse gases,
it’s about supplying meaningful jobs to thousands, improving infrastructure and creating
a just transition away from our current broken global capitalist system.
As we look towards the next couple of years wondering what we can do, we’ll have to
work hard to not only make individual changes but more importantly fight for global and
structural changes that will inevitably be made possible by the loud calls of climate
action movements. So, what can you do? You can call your government officials, march,
vote for strong climate action-oriented candidates, take on the labor of educating people who
don’t think the climate crisis is important, and follow or financially support those doing
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change the global industrial system that continues to allow 36.2 billion tons of carbon into
the atmosphere each year. To address this problem, we need tangible, courageous climate
action, led by those who are most affected by the climate crisis and supported by all
of us. We are working to build freedom for all, which, as Angela Davis puts it, requires
a constant struggle.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, full-scale societal restructuring
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Hey Everyone! Charlie here. Thanks for making it all the way to the end of the video. If
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