By: Olivia Katz
On September 20, there were climate strikes all across the country. Many people in America are currently unhappy with the way that the government views climate change, its science, and its validity. Since President Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement in 2017, many American citizens are worried about what will become of the Earth as pollution ravages it. In order to try to convince the American government to take climate change more seriously, these climate strikes were organized. I spoke to a few students who attended the West Chester and Philadelphia strikes to get a better idea of what it entailed and what the rest of us can do to get involved.
Mia Zabello and Sarah Manthorp spoke a lot about who attended and participated in the strike. Mostly students attended, as well as politicians running for local governmental positions. Flyers advocating for voting were passed out in order to encourage people to vote in favor of environmentally-concerned politicians. Manthorpe mentioned that there was talk about a pipeline that’s being constructed and running through backyards in many counties. Speakers encouraged the audience to boycott Sunoco, as they were the company responsible for the pipeline.
I also spoke with Ellie Pasquale, who played a major role in getting many STEM students to attend the Philadelphia strike. I asked her what other things people can do to advocate that, as Pasquale said, “climate science is real.” She responded that one of the most important ways to “make noise” and invoke change is “to have conversations with people even if they don’t agree with you.” She mentioned that she has a friend who doesn’t believe climate change is real. Although, she said that “it’s actually really insightful to have conversations with her, because I trust her as a human being and it humanizes that side of the argument. I think sometimes when we care about something so much it means that anyone who doesn’t agree with us… they become the villain. It’s really hard to compromise with a villian.” As students who are trained in research, the best thing we can do to contribute to this is to come to a discussion about the topic with facts and evidence to back up our stance.
Pasquale also said that speaking out on social media is important. She said, “ We love when people promote it on social media. That helps so much because it also reaches a wider audience.”
I also asked her about the reasons for the strike and what they’re trying to achieve. She responded that one of the most important things is a Green New Deal. She said, “I attended the Green New Deal conference at UPenn a few weeks ago, and they really went into depth about what it entails and why it’s such an abstract idea… the problem right now is that, simply, our current government… doesn’t exactly want to have the conversation. So the idea of a Green New Deal has been paused… no progress is being made… a lot of people are aggravated by that… for us kids, the most important thing is, first of all, by striking and by telling the adults that we care, we’re intimidating politicians who aren’t having the conversation. Second of all, we need to educate ourselves and educate each other… Look up what a Green New Deal is, what you want a Green New Deal to look like and why other people want a Green New Deal to look like something else.”
I then asked what we can do because there’s no progress being made on this Green New Deal. She responded, “Write to your representatives. I [have] talked to Danielle Friel Otten. Our representatives, at least around us… we are so lucky to have so many that care about us and we need to use those resources. We need to tell them what we think and what we want, because when their constituents agree with them, they are more motivated and more driven to fulfill what we want. Strike if you can. Our next strike day is actually going to be December 6th.” She mentioned that if your parents may not allow you to attend this strike in Philadelphia, try to do your work in advance and see if that changes your availability to take off school. Finally, she said, “I know that this is controversial, but the little things do count… like I carry around the utensils and I carry around the reusable bottle because by doing that, I start conversations with people.” Overall, Pasquale reminded us that conversations with people on both sides is the way to get information out there and to help change peoples’ minds.