Students seek to expand support for strike on climate change
Friday march in Chicago calls for state to pass Clean Energy Jobs Act
Greta Thunberg testifies before Congress on Wednesday. She submitted a scientific report on climate change, saying, “I don’t want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to the scientists.” (YouTube)
By Ted Cox
Students striking to demand action on climate change are seeking to expand their support to adults Friday as they march in Chicago.
The Chicago Youth Climate Strike steps off at 11 a.m. Friday at the south end of Grant Park in Chicago, at Columbus Drive and Roosevelt Road. Students striking from school will march to Federal Plaza at 219 S. Dearborn St. for a rally. It’s the latest in a series of worldwide student strikes demanding action on global warming launched a year ago by teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Student strikes are expected to take place Friday in 150 countries around the world.
Thunberg will lead a rally in New York City on Friday. She arrived in the United States three weeks ago after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean on a zero-emissions boat. She addressed Congress in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, and next week will address the United Nations Climate Action Summit. Another student strike is planned for next Friday, Sept. 27.
Thunberg began her congressional testimony by simply submitting a scientific report on climate change, saying, “I don’t want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to the scientists.”
Jessica Sun Li, the Illinois Youth Climate Strike creative director at Libertyville High School, explained the goals of the strike in an opinion column printed in Thursday’s Chicago Sun-Times. “We know governments won’t deliver climate action and justice action on their own,” she wrote. “We’ve watched them stall on aggressive policy for our entire lives. So we’re going on strike to show them what people power is capable of.
“Youth around the world just like me have been striking from school to bring attention to the climate crisis because we deserve a future safe from climate catastrophe,” she added. “Now, for the first time, we are asking adults to join us. By striking in solidarity with youth climate leaders, adults have the power to disrupt the business-as-usual politics that have led us to the brink of climate destruction.”
The students use their youth to heighten the argument advanced by scientists that the world has 10 years to dramatically alter the course of global warming — that is, if it isn’t already too late. Thunberg began her protests outside the Swedish Parliament just over a year ago. She calls for additional initiatives to the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, which set firm goals for reducing carbon emissions and other so-called greenhouse gases responsible for raising the global temperature and setting off climate change.
President Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris agreement only months into his presidency two years ago. Democrats have recently called for a commitment to observe the Paris Accord to be included in the U.S.-Mexico Canada Trade Agreement, Trump’s replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement, which still must be ratified by Congress.
In Friday’s Chicago march, student strikers will be pressing for Illinois to pass the Clean Energy Job Act, an ambitious piece of legislation sponsored by state Sen. Cristina Castro of Elgin and Rep. Ann Williams of Chicago. It builds on the Future Energy Jobs Act, a bipartisan law passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner three years ago.
Williams welcomed the support and sent some right back. “I am motivated, energized and inspired by the young people organizing and participating in tomorrow’s Chicago Youth Climate Strike,” she said in a statement. “Tomorrow’s event, which is part of an international day of action to demand action on climate, is quickly becoming a critical part of our push to impact climate change right here in Illinois with the passage of the Clean Energy Jobs Act.
“The young people are rightly concerned about their futures, and the futures of our communities, our country — and our planet,” she added. “Far too many policymakers are taking a cavalier approach as we watch the devastation of climate change unfold. These students are telling it straight — if we don’t take steps to address these issues now, the price to be paid will be heavy on future generations.
“The young people are rightly concerned about their futures, and the futures of our communities, our country — and our planet.”
State Rep. Ann Williams (Blue Room Stream)
“I stand in solidarity with these amazing young people as they push to make Illinois a leader in fighting against climate change and creating a clean, healthy and green future. It’s time to lead.”
The Citizens Utility Board has endorsed the new legislation, saying, “Thanks to a series of groundbreaking clean-energy laws, including the Future Energy Jobs Act of 2016, Illinois has gone from having some of the highest electric bills in the country to some of the lowest. But fossil-fuel generators — the companies that run coal and natural-gas power plants — don’t like how cleaner sources of energy have eaten into their profits in recent years. They are working in Washington and Springfield to stop Illinois’s progress. It is critical that we pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act to preserve what we have accomplished, and improve upon it.”
Without endorsing the Clean Energy Jobs Act specifically, Gov. Pritzker said he was on board as well, especially in opposition to Trump. “While the president moves the country backward despite the impacts of climate change, Gov. Pritzker has taken important steps to put the state on a path toward 100 percent clean and renewable energy,” said spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “During his first weeks in office, the governor signed an executive order to join the U.S. Climate Alliance. Since then, the governor has signed bills that will boost wind-energy development in the state, prevent coal ash from polluting communities, and repeal the Kyoto Protocol Act allowing the state to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions. Gov. Pritzker also championed a capital plan that invests $140 million for renewable energy projects across Illinois. He looks forward to working with advocates to build on this progress.”
Labor groups plan a protest at 9:30 a.m. Friday outside Amazon’s Chicago offices in the AT&T Building at 227 W. Monroe St. in solidarity with Amazon Tech workers who plan to walk off the job at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. They’ll then join the student march in Grant Park. The Illinois Environmental Council is among the many other “adult” groups endorsing Friday’s Chicago march.
“Young people have the most to lose if we do not swiftly act to address climate change with bold and realistic solutions like the Clean Energy Jobs Act,” said Jen Walling, the council’s executive director. “We all have a role to play in reversing course, and on Friday we’ll be standing in solidarity with youth calling on us to secure their future. I hope Gov. Pritzker and members of the General Assembly are listening.”
Public schools in New York City have already said students will not be punished if they take part in Friday’s strike. According to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Public Schools has announced a policy that students who return to school after Friday’s march will be excused, while students who do not will be charged with an unexcused absence.
According to the Global Climate Strike website, other Illinois student strikes are set for 9 a.m. at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, at 10 a.m. in Springfield, at 10:30 a.m. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, at noon in Peoria, Normal, and at Millikin University in Decatur and Augustana College in Rock Island, and at 5 p.m. in Charleston.
“Our house is on fire,” reads a statement on the website. “Let’s act like it.”