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Student Strikes Continue To Push For Climate Action

Sean C. Davis | December 12, 2019

Topics: Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Climate change, Cool Kids Science RVA, Democratic Socialists of America, Dominion Energy, Extinction Rebellion Richmond, Mountain Valley Pipeline, Sunrise Movement, Virginia Capitol, wildfires, Youth Climate Strike

Last Friday saw Central Virginia students missing school to demand action on climate change in ongoing Global Climate Strike actions in Richmond.

Dozens of Richmond area students skipped class Friday to demand government action on climate change. Part of the larger Youth Global Climate Strike, the actions included a march that briefly shut down one lane of Broad St. (east of Belvidere) and a rally at the state capitol.

The Richmond Climate Strike was organized by members of the local Sunrise Movement and Extinction Rebellion (XR) chapters. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Democratic Socialists of America, and several other groups were also represented.

A group of about 70 departed from Monroe Park and headed through VCU campus, chanting and singing as surprised college students looked on. The group paused briefly in front of the Cabell Library before looping back toward Belvidere and on to Broad.

What began as a single police officer observing from a distance quickly grew to a sizeable police escort as the marchers took over busy streets. Police cars sped ahead of the procession, holding up traffic at intersections and following slowly behind. 

Protesters march through Monroe Park on their way to the state Capitol building. (Photo by Sean C. Davis)

On the lawn of the state capitol, students and activists took turns addressing the crowd, giving impassioned speeches and leading the group in songs (including, at one point, the Mr. Rogers theme).

Kennedy Wright, a 9-year-old climate activist, expressed concern for the way Virginia’s marine species are already being affected by rising temperatures.

“We need to find a way to save the ecosystem and ourselves,” she said. “I hope the politicians can fix the problem with good laws and more money for research.”

Wright runs Cool Kids Science RVA with her sister Jordan, who spoke about the increased threat of forest fires in California as well as the commonwealth.

“Here in Virginia, there are 24 counties with burn bans because, so far, it’s the driest fall Virginia has seen in 20 years,” she told the crowd. “There’s nothing we can do about the lack of rain, but we can stop contributing to making our planet hotter.”

Protesters affiliated with Chesapeake Climate Action Network march through VCU campus. (Photo by Sean C. Davis)

Several speakers stressed the importance of viewing environmental issues in a larger social justice context and elevating the voices of people of color within their movement.

Laura Haden, a local XR organizer, sought to illustrate the link between the fossil fuel industry and broader policies that negatively impact people, drawing a line between Dominion and a controversial $1.5 billion redevelopment plan backed by the company’s CEO, Tom Farrell.

“The goal to be carbon neutral by 2025 is a really big goal because we immediately think of carbon-heavy investments that would be a new coliseum in Navy Hill,” she said.” We think of the developments that are being built while occupied buildings are allowed to fall apart at the hand and profits of slum lords.”

Stephanie Younger, a 17-year-old organizer with Virginia Youth Climate Strike, explained that although people of color are disproportionately affected by climate and racial justice issues, their voices are often excluded from conversations, or dismissed as divisive and aggressive.

“And I speak from experience as a gun violence activist who has been labeled that way,” she said. “Not only does the media portray us in ways that discredit and marginalize our voices, but a lot of us are heavily criminalized for exercising our first amendment right.”

Escorted by Richmond Police, protesters filled the eastbound lanes of Broad St. on their march to the Capitol. (Photo by Sean C. Davis)

“My call to action to all of you, especially the press, the schools, the police and political leaders is to give black and brown youth climate activists the same attention and energy you gave to our white climate activists.”

Several of the attendees had been involved in anti-pipeline actions in Southwestern Virginia. Mara Robinson, a longtime environmental activist who recently moved to Richmond from Floyd, spoke about working in a support role at the April 2018 “aerial blockade” on Bent Mountain involving 61-year-old landowner Red Terry.

“We have successfully stalled the Atlantic Coast Pipeline,” she announced to cheers from the crowd. “However, we’ve had people living in trees in southwest Virginia to protect us from the Mountain Valley Pipeline.”

Claudia Sachs, a junior at Glen Allen High School, performed a song she penned earlier this year after attending an earlier climate action.

“My goal is that it becomes the anthem of the climate movement,” she said after the event. “Because we need strength and power and motivation, and I think music is one of the best ways to do that.”

High school student Claudia Sachs performs an original song about the dangers of climate change at the Capitol. (Photo by Sean C. Davis)

Lyrics like “the California forests will be ash before we know it/The ice from the arctic will flood your streets and markets” predict a bleak future, but the notion didn’t come as a shock to the listeners.

The atmosphere of the event was as much about sharing grief and anxiety about the damage climate change will cause over the coming decades as it was about building political power.

Some activists, like Selene Norman, don’t have to look to future fears. Her idea of what the so-called climate crisis looks like comes from firsthand experience riding out Hurricane Irma in West Palm Beach, Florida in 2017. When an evacuation was ordered, she explained, many people lacked the resources to leave their homes.

“Gas stations were out of gas, hotels were expensive, hotels were booked out,” the Reynolds Community College student recounted. “So we were basically just sitting there waiting to die. Luckily it only hit us at a category 3, which is still pretty catastrophic.”

Climate Strikers outside Dominion’s corporate offices. (Photo by Sean C. Davis)

Actions like Friday’s strike help her deal with the anxiety of that experience.

“I applied to be an organizer — and now all those worries I had when I was in Florida — I’m able to manifest it to make a change.”

Sachs, echoing a common refrain, lamented the general public’s lack of concern about climate change despite the shrinking time frame left to meaningfully address it. Educating people, she explained, is the easy part. The problem is that many think they’ll be able to escape the rising seas and strengthened storms.

“As [Norman was] saying, if you can afford a hotel room in a disaster, or extra gas, or extra food, or you can just move, that completely is a privilege,” she said. “So I think that prevents people from seeing the urgency of it, but money is not going to save us from this climate crisis.”

After the rally, a group of students made their way to the Dominion offices at Eighth & Main to hold a die-in. As employees shuffled past and security guards watched from inside, more than a dozen tweens, teens, and young adults laid down on the sidewalk and remained still for five minutes. Afterward they slowly made their way to their feet chanting, “the oceans are rising, and so are we,” then dispersed.

The die-in at Dominion Energy’s corporate headquarters. (Photo by Sean C. Davis)

“We chose the capitol location because we wanted to put pressure on the politicians who will be coming in in a month or so,” Sachs explained. “And we decided to march to Dominion because Dominion is really the company that is harming people on the ground and damaging so many communities.”

Top Photo by Sean C. Davis

Op-Ed: Best Bet to Solve Climate Change? Vote In Virginia’s Off-Year Elections Today

David Millman | November 5, 2019

Topics: Activate Virginia, Climate change, Democratic Party of Virginia, Election 2019, General Assembly, Green New Deal Virginia, Joshua Cole, Youth Climate Strike, Youth Strike 4 Climate

Voting for Democratic candidates today is our best bet to create a better future for Virginia’s climate, writes Virginia environmental activist David Millman.

“I thought there would be more people,” I said to myself as I looked over the ragtag team of friends I had convinced to come with me to a climate rally we heard about on Instagram a couple days before. It was late spring. I had become increasingly involved with environmental activism over the past two years and managed to secure a speaking spot in front of the state capitol building in my hometown of Richmond.

After getting to the rally late (I had accidentally typed in the wrong address in my friend’s phone), we settled into the grass among the fifteen or so other activists. There were some high schoolers, a couple of older folks, and a surprising number of elementary school kids.

I listened to the few other activists talk, including a surprisingly rousing speech from Joshua Cole, a candidate for VA H.D. 28. Then it was my turn to speak.

Walking up to the small podium, I noticed the wind had started to pick up. The microphone was catching this, throwing back a loud screeching sound. I took a moment to look around at the crowd. The grass, instead of adoring supporters, overwhelmingly dominated my view. I thought to myself, “a movement can start with just a few people.” You should never daydream speaking to a crowd you can count on your hand. Nevertheless, I began to talk about climate change.

“If we fight, we can get back the majority and address climate change with concrete laws in Virginia,” I almost yelled over the wind. I finished my speech with a call to action to volunteer for candidates in these upcoming elections. I truly believe that who wins in November can shape the course of climate policy in the United States for decades to come. I told the people in attendance to never stop fighting for climate justice.

Then came September 20th.

Climate activists descended to the streets, parks, and the fronts of government buildings across the country, demanding a response to the climate crisis. The global climate strike was one of the largest protests in modern history.

There were several climate strikes throughout Virginia, including one in front of that very same capitol building. This time there were hundreds of people. And no wind.

If climate policy has any chance of progressing in this country, the energy of these strikes needs to translate to politics–especially at the local and state levels.

Protesters need to turn into canvassers. Strikers need to turn into voters. Demonstrators need to turn into volunteers.

Back in 2017, Virginia Democrats ran one of the most diverse batch of candidates of any state election in United States history. Running for the state house, many didn’t believe that the candidates chosen could win. The candidates harnessed the anger of countless Virginians and won back fifteen seats.

The following year, the congressional elections followed the same exact model. Virginia’s off-year elections proved to be a powerful force and an accurate predictor of national behavior.

Every seat in the Virginia state legislature is up for election this November. The state legislature could be flipped, and Democrats could regain the majority.

If the Democratic Party wins, Virginia will become the first former-Confederate state to be truly liberal from the top down.

The Virginia Green New Deal is gaining steam, collecting support from workers’ unions, social justice groups, and environmental organizations. Many Democrats have signed the Activate Virginia Pledge, announcing they will not accept money from Dominion Energy or Appalachian Power. Candidates are finally willing to stand up to the corporations that caused this problem in the first place.

Since the margins would be very tight for passing any climate legislation, the policy proposed would need to have at least some bipartisan support. If Virginia could pass popular, transformative climate policy as a southern state, it could not only set the trend for the 2020 elections, but provide a framework for other states, proving that a climate response is achievable even without firm Democratic control.

Success in Virginia would also outline the importance of building a coalition of grassroots support from labor, social justice, and environmental organizations. It would make a nation-wide climate response realistic, popular, and case-tested for the federal level, and lead the way to a global response.

Virginia can be the catalyst for the nation to solve climate change. It all depends on November 5th. 

Note: Op-Eds are contributions from guest writers and do not reflect RVA Magazine editorial policy.

All Photos from Richmond Youth Climate Strike, September 20, by VCU-CNS

Richmond Climate Activists Host Their Largest Climate Strike to Date

VCU CNS | September 23, 2019

Topics: Capitol Square, Climate change, Ecological Crisis, Extinction Rebellion Richmond, Youth Climate Strike, Youth Strike 4 Climate

At the Capitol Bell Tower on Friday, the Youth Climate Strike drew over 300 protesters who left their jobs and schools to demand climate action from legislators.

Environmental activists marched into Capitol Square Friday, chanting and begging for climate action from Virginia legislators. 

The U.S. Youth Climate Strike brought an estimated 300 demonstrators, who joined a global movement to raise awareness for climate justice ahead of the Youth Climate Summit Saturday and the United Nations Climate Action Summit that starts Monday in New York. 

Climate strikes were held all over the world. From Uganda to Berlin to New York and Richmond, the streets were swarming with people concerned over climate change. 

In Richmond, signs waved by young, fresh faces read: “It IS easy being green; You are the FOSSILS we are the FUEL; We want our hopes and dreams back.”

The strikes have been organized by youth who say they do not want to stand by while their planet — and their futures — are ruined. 

Activists warned of the impending ecological disasters due to climate change. 

The youngest to stand behind the small podium was a Clover Hill Elementary student who introduced herself as “Sophie.” Other speakers included high school student organizers, a teen poet, a 60-year-old biologist from New York, and eco-villagers who live a sustainable lifestyle on Virginia communes. 

The resounding message was fear: fear of their future. With the United Nations predicting ecological disaster as little as 11 years from now the students expressed their concerns for the safety of the planet. 

“You will die from old age while we will die from climate change,” Sophie said.

Kids of all ages missed a day of school to attend the strike. In New York, over 1 million students were excused from classes.

“I’m here because the climate is something we need to build legislation on and it’s not doing so hot right now, and so we need to get our voices out to the people in power,” said teenager Ciara Graves. 

At home, Graves and her mom eat a vegetarian diet and try to live a minimal-waste lifestyle, including composting their food scraps.They said they hope to make positive environmental changes on a small scale. 

It wasn’t just teens taking action. They were joined by a large showing of Virginia Commonwealth University students and people of all ages. Richmond resident Emily Kimball and her friends were looking for a way to celebrate her 88th birthday and decided to attend the climate strike together to promote awareness of climate change refugees who have had to flee their homes due to the effects of the changing climate.  

For those who stayed at school or work, a second event at 5 p.m. was organized by Extinction Rebellion Richmond. Following a gathering at Monroe Park, the group planned to march to the state Capitol. 

This was the third time the group hosted events in Richmond this year. In March and May, around 30 people attended each event.

Written by Emma North, Capital News Service. Photos via VCU-CNS

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