Climate Strike Primer
Tomorrow, September 20th, starts a week long, international climate strike and it has come to my attention over the last few months that most Americans have no idea what I am talking about. Neither when I bring it up nor when I mention the organizations behind it.
I’ve only recently returned to the US from living in the UK and Switzerland the last two years. I witnessed the rise of Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion. It baffled me when I realized that my sister, an environmental engineer, and mother both of whom are environmentally minded and engaged with current events had never heard of the school climate strikes nor the cities being shut down across Europe with the aim of forcing climate action throughout society.
If my family, living in California and already conscience of the environment, who hear me bring up climate change and the environment in almost every conversation (a hazard of being in the field and also a concerned human) have no idea of what is coming to the US, then I can only assume most Americans are about to be similarly blindsided.
This is not the environmental movement of the past.
So my fellow Americans, here’s your introduction to the Climate Strike and the movements behind it.
The Climate Crisis is Here
Unless you’ve been living under a rock or perhaps more accurately shoving your head in the sand so as to be unaware of the wave about to drown you, then you should be aware that the long projected impacts of climate change are already surrounding you. Since the science has been in for over 150 years on the basics of global warming, that rising levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases helpfully pumped into the atmosphere by humans is causing the earth’s temperature to rise with often harmful and increasingly devastating effects, this article will not try to convince you of the truth. If you are skeptical of science there are plenty of other sources to for you to delve into (Skeptical Science, Michael Mann, Dr. Kate Marvel, to name but a few).
The goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement is to keep global warming to below 2°C (3.6F), but ideally 1.5°C (2.7°F). Since the Industrial Revolution the planet’s temperature has risen about 1°C (1.8°F). This means that only .5°C (.9°F) is left before the world hits 1.5°C (2.7°F). We are working with a limited budget and so far the commitments under the Paris Agreement are not enough to get the job done, and the commitments are more ambitious than the actions actually taken on the ground for a majority of the 197 signatories (the European Union represents 28 countries). The US while an original signatory is in the process of withdrawing, which will be accomplished one day after the 2020 election results come in. It is the only country in the world who will not be a party to the Agreement. Though American cities, states, and corporations have stepped in to make up the ground lost by the federal government’s retreat.
What does this all have to do with the Climate Strikes? Everything. We are at a critical moment and the status quo is failing us. The lackluster ambition of a majority of countries, businesses, local governments, and financial institutions is condemning not only our future, but our present. Is it any surprise then that youth are leading many of the new movements arising all over the world? And that they are taking on new tactics since over thirty years of testimony, protest, lobbying, and negotiating have gotten us here — 1.8°F warmer with exponentially rising emissions, human-amplified natural disasters and extreme weather, mass migration, and what many are calling eco-apartheid.
So children and young adults are skipping school and taking off work every Friday to demand action by their governments, risking their academic records, employment, and bodies to ensure they have a future. People are shutting down major cities for days at a time, hitting companies and governments where it hurts — their pocket books. Creating communities of joyful resistance. Prepared for and aiming to be arrested.
The US news barely touched the stories, but in Europe it was impossible to escape.
Now as the United Nations convenes the Youth Climate Summit on September 21st and the Climate Action Summit on September 23rd in New York City, the US will get an introduction to this new era of environmentalism. Globally coordinated action begins September 20th with additional major actions on September 23rd, 25th, and 27th. I do not believe most Americans have any idea of what disruptions await them.
The International Scene
I moved from the UK to Switzerland in November 2018. The same month that Extinction Rebellion took its first actions on the ground. I watched from afar as they shut down London for over a week. Then a few months later London, Cardiff, Leeds, Bristol, and Glasgow. It was exhilarating. And awe-inspiring. I started to feel hopeful. I started to feel like I was witnessing history. I wanted to take part, but I was a channel and two countries away, and furthermore as a US citizen who would like to move back to Europe at some point could absolutely not risk arrest (though I’ve learned there are many ways to take part without courting arrest). Then the school strikes came to Geneva.
During one of the globally coordinated strikes I told my supervisor at the United Nations Environment Programme that I would be going with a group of fellow interns to attend. It was not a question. I was not going to take every Friday off but I wanted to show my support, and more importantly bolster the numbers that would be witnessed and reported in the media.
Geneva is not a large city. It is full of transients like me, there for a few months, maybe a few years. You’re not likely to meet many Swiss, particularly Geneva born Swiss, in the city. So it was shocking how large the climate strike was that day. We were swept up in a crowd that was full of clever signs, French chants, and exuberance. I could only imagine what the scenes must have been like in Zurich, Paris, London, Berlin, Stockholm, and all over the rest of the world. Fridays for Future might have grown out of Europe, but it has reached global salience.
This is what is coming to America’s shores on September 20th. So who are these organizations?
Fridays for Future is perhaps the better known of the two movements within the US. That is directly due to the young woman who began striking on her own in August 2018. Americans do love a rebel. For three weeks straight Greta Thunberg sat outside the Swedish Parliament skipping school to call attention to the climate crisis and the government’s lackluster response to it. Her lonely vigil gathered attention all over the world and slowly, then all at once people from around the globe began to hold their own protests outside of their government buildings. A student-led movement began to spread and Fridays became a day of unified climate action.
Extinction Rebellion (XR) formed from a congress of academics and organizers. They combined the history and science behind mass mobilization with the experience of those who have partaken and lead such actions. It launched in the UK in May 2018. During November 2018 it took its first major action of rebellion in London by blockading bridges across the city and by January 2019 XR had spread to the rest of the UK as well as to the US. In April 2019 XR took over five sites in London for over a week and by the summer of 2019 their actions were coordinated across cities and countries.
Unlike the school climate strikes, XR actions are meant to be massively disruptive and court arrest. The willingness to be arrested is key. It perhaps also explains the more limited reach in the US. It is hard to imagine the civility of the UK police described in Extinction Rebellion’s manual, This Is Not a Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook, translating to the US. But also key to XR is the sense of community they foster. A group of like-minded strangers coming together to save their home in a spirit of defiant joy.
Uniquely American
At about the same time that their European counterparts were getting organized and taking to the streets, the Sunrise Movement and This is Zero Hour were building their movements and offending the old guard.
The US Youth Climate Strike is led by eight organizations, including Zero Hour and Sunrise, and has clear demands when it comes to addressing the climate crisis: respect of indigenous land and sovereignty; environmental justice; protection and restoration of biodiversity; implementation of sustainable agriculture; and a Green New Deal.
The Green New Deal is not a new idea, its origins trace back over a decade, but the Sunrise Movement relaunched the concept with astonishing energy in the US. Now an issue that once seemed like a moonshot has its own think tank and has become a central debating issue among political parties, and even within the Democratic Party. The pairing of a bold, unapologetic movement willing to point out the inadequacies of even those who take climate change seriously or are at least deemed “good” on the issue with a savvy, newly minted Congressional Representative willing to participate in a demonstration in the leader of her party’s DC office created an unbeatable alchemy of spirit and ambition. As the Sunrise Movement and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined together in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, an unspoken message began to whisper through the halls of power — the millennials are here and they couldn’t care less about your status quo.
Established voices began to take up the call. Senator Ed Markey, known for championing the environment, co-sponsored the Green New Deal with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. Activists began to coalesce around the concept. The first proposal within the US Congress to address climate change as what it is — an integrated, interdisciplinary issue that will affect all aspects and levels of society and which must be addressed in that manner. The ideas that may have worked to slowly transition to a no-carbon society are no longer enough. Time is out. There is a reason all of these movements revolve around the passage of time. We are a generation that has watched time slip through the fingers of those who came before us and we are left with not enough sand in the hourglass.
It’s no wonder Gen Z is taking to the streets and the courts. They are living with the knowledge that their future has been thieved and they must now fight to reclaim it. This is Zero Hour has chapters all over the nation and the world. It was founded and continues to be led mostly by young women, including many young women of color. A welcome change to those of us who have worked in the environmental field, which is somehow still dominated by white men and women. They have helped to revitalize discussions in the US surrounding environmental justice and the lack of it within our country.
The most marginalized groups are often hit the hardest in politics and the communities facing the most egregious environmental degradation and harm have further proved the rule. Climate change has and will continue to reinforce this maxim, unless justice is intentionally embedded in how we deal with the crisis facing us.
They may not be able to vote, but the leaders of Zero Hour have certainly grabbed the attention of those who can.
There are far more than just these four movements behind the global climate strike. An effort like this requires all hands on deck. Yet, these four are some of the most visible and effective of this new wave and it will certainly be in Americans’ interest to know their names. These September actions are just the start.
Beyond the Usual Suspects
The youth are leading, but they are not alone. The lead up to this global climate strike has been different to others. It is not just the expected CEOs, politicians, and celebrities taking up the cause.
A growing list of businesses are participating in the climate strike or allowing their employees a way to do so while employees at other companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google are declaring that they will walk out in support of climate action. The International Trade Union Confederation has come out in support of the strike and the New York City public school district is giving all students the option to take Friday, September 20th off of school to strike for their future.
The entire world will be touched in some way by the Global Climate Strike. There are over 5000 events planned. People of all ages and backgrounds will come together. Generations will join in a common cause.
Expect disruption until the status quo is upended. And make sure to have your dancing shoes ready for rebellion.
