Skipping School To Protest Climate Change

Students across the U.S. plan to skip school Friday as a protest to call for more action to address climate change. Organizers have dubbed the event the "U.S. Youth Climate Strike."

It's an extension of similar protests around the world that began last summer with teenager Greta Thunberg in Sweden, and gained attention when Thunberg delivered a powerful speech at the United Nations climate summit in December, chastising delegates for not doing more.

The strikes and rallies are scheduled in all but a few states (along with others around the world.) They come as public concern about climate change is up, apparently driven by more extreme weather events, and a series of reports on the increasingly dire consequences of the warming climate.

In Denver, 12 year-old Haven Coleman is a co-founder and co-director of the organization planning the first school strikes in the U.S.

"I've always been passionate about fixing something when I see something is wrong," says Coleman, whose environmental activism began with a campaign to help manatees. "I ended up saving one manatee. His name is Cheese. He's adorable," she says.

Inspired by Greta Thunberg's protest in Sweden, Coleman says she searched for other young activists to organize a similar school strike here. Now she co-directs the project with Isra Hirsi, 16, of Minneapolis, and Alexandria Villaseñor, 13, of New York City.

Their platform includes a call for Congress to pass the Green New Deal, which is aimed at speeding the country's transition to carbon-free energy and re-making the economy to spread wealth more evenly.

A number of Democratic presidential candidates have come out in favor of the non-binding resolution, while other Democrats — including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — have downplayed it. When Senator Dianne Feinstein explained her opposition to the Green New Deal to a group of schoolchildren last month, video of the exchange went viral.

Coleman says Friday's campaign received some help from adults, including The Future Coalition, but much of the planning and preparation was done by young volunteers across the country.

In Philadelphia, a group of about a dozen young people met last weekend in a row house to prepare for the protest. They wrote letters to members of Congress and painted a yellow cloth banner that reads, 'It's our future.'

16 year-old Sabirah Mahmud says she leads a team of about 20 young people organizing the Philadelphia youth climate strike, and a rally in LOVE Park near Philadelphia's city hall.

Mahmud says she has a personal motivation for participating in the strike — her family is from Bangladesh, where flooding already is a big problem.

"Sea levels are rising and Bangladesh is one of the countries where climate change is really happening," says Mahmud.

Another protest organizer is 16 year-old Enya Xiang of Ardmore, Pennsylvania. She's been working on logistics.

"I had to go down into the city to file the permits and figure out all the sound technology we need," says Xiang. "Dealing with adults is a little scary."

And some adults are critical of the Youth Climate Strike, both its goals and methods.

"I do not like the symbolism of sacrificing education to make political points," says Scott Segal, a partner at the law firm Bracewell, which represents energy companies.

Segal says he welcomes these newcomers to the public policy arena. But, just like some moderate Democrats, he argues the Green New Deal is not realistic. And he says energy companies are doing a lot already.

"Industry believes that policy to address global climate change is a 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year job that they're already engaged in," he says.

But Haven Coleman says neither energy companies nor state or national lawmakers are moving fast enough. She says striking school is extreme, and there's a reason for that.

"Because you're not really listening to us now, so this is the radical stuff that we need to do to get your attention," she says.

And if this strike doesn't accomplish that, Coleman says another is planned in May.

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