Letter to the Editor: School Strike for Climate
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On Friday, September 20th, I’ll be on strike. More accurately I’ll be answering the call of the global youth movement School Strike for Climate, to support their worldwide strikes on those days.
From modest beginnings in the fall of 2018, School Strike for Climate (also known as Fridays For Future, Youth for Climate, and Youth Strike 4 Climate) has grown to a fully global, grass roots youth movement demanding action on climate change. Their strikes over the past year have drawn hundreds of thousands of youth and garnered international attention (the events in March of this year are thought to have attracted well over a million strikers). Their demands are clear. In the words of one of the strike’s founders, sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg, “We demand the world’s decision-makers take responsibility and solve this crisis. You have failed us in the past. If you continue failing us in the future, we, the young people, will make change happen by ourselves. The youth of this world has started to move and we will not rest again.” They are supported by tens of thousands of scientists and scholars. (For those unfamiliar w/ the movement, the Wikipedia article is a good primer.)
They’re not wrong. In fact, they’re exactly right. We as a civilization now face a bona fide planetary emergency ― not my words, but those of the mainstream scientific community ― and we Utahans are fully embedded in this emergency. We have played our role in creating it, we are experiencing its impacts, and we will do ourselves and our descendants proud in doing our part to respond.
It is my understanding that a number of students here at USU and in high schools in the valley will be participating in this strike, and so I am choosing to honor their request ― to strike with them and for them. I’d ask all of my USU colleagues to consider doing the same. I often hear parents, professors and politicians stand in front of our youth and say “We’re relying on you to solve these problems.” It’s a brazen abdication. Here’s yet another chance for us to step up.
Dr. Robert Davies is an Associate Professor of Professional Practice in the Dept of Physics, where he studies global change, human sustainability & vibrancy, and critical science communication.