Climate Strike Letter
Today, millions of people around the world are on strike.
Massive Science stands with them in solidarity and in protest of global inaction on climate change.
The Global Climate Strike is a worldwide collection of protests against climate inaction. It is also a show of support for the continuing #FridaysForFuture strikes. All people everywhere are invited to join strikes on September 20th and 27th: find one near you.
On September 23rd, the UN commences its Climate Action Summit. On September 25th, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will release a new report on the current state of the oceans and cryosphere, and how climate change is affecting them. Starting Monday the 23rd, we will feature a full week of articles and interviews with leading scientists and policy makers about the future of the planet.
Next week and into the future we'll continue to share stories about the real impacts of climate change and the science behind them. But today, instead of working on stories about our rapidly changing planet, we'll be in the streets shouting about it.
In the meantime, especially if you can't make it out into the street today, we encourage you to read some of our previous coverage of climate change:
When you've come home from the strike, we hope you'll continue the fight. Contact a group doing work in your hometown to promote solutions to climate change—and join them. Here are just a few of those groups to get you started:
Finally, read why our staff and community, individually, are striking:
Allan Lasser, Co-founder: Massive was founded on the idea that scientists should have the ability to speak up and be heard when it comes to the problems they study and understand best. For far too long, the voices of scientists have gone ignored by leaders in the United States and around the world. Now, all of us have to speak up, loudly, in the streets, and demand that this crisis be seen for what it is and addressed with urgency.
When we say that reducing our carbon consumption requires a profound change in how our society operates, what that really means is that it requires a profound change in how we relate to one another. We can have a better, kinder, and carbon-negative society today if we demand it. And if we can do that, we might just stand a chance at withstanding the challenges to come.
Nadja Oertelt, Co-founder: This is a moment when we must acknowledge the power of collective action in addressing climate change. I have no choice but to strike. Youth are leading this movement, and I support their attempt to hold us all accountable. The most destructive act of humanity - the dismissal of the environment for financial gain - is gaining terrifying momentum and the impact on all living things will be unfathomable. But we can join together and try to keep the most vulnerable safe and make those who have profited pay for their greed. We can create a new story of powerful action instead of succumbing to the story of our biggest failure.
Dan Samorodnitsky, Science Editor: It's a despicable thing to climb a ladder and pull it up behind you. It's another thing to climb a ladder, light the world below on fire, and then fight against the people left behind trying to put the flames out. That is what we are facing. All I want is to leave a world for the next generation better than the one I found, but at this point I'd settle for a world that's not beyond repair. I'm striking to protest the wealthy and powerful destroying the planet, stepping on our fingers as they pull the ladder up, and telling us to stop complaining when we cry out in pain.
Brittney Borowiec, Assistant Editor: It's time for the governments of the world to make real, substantive steps towards addressing the climate emergency. We can fix this, but we need to big and powerful players to act now. It's easy to talk to talk. It's time to walk the walk.
Cassie Freund, Assistant Editor: Climate change will not only destroy humanity and our lives as we know them, but it is also already affecting the ecosystems, plants, and animals that make life on this planet possible. I'm striking to give a voice to the millions of species on Earth that are not human.
Gabi Serrato Marks, Community and Audience Developer: The science is clear: it's time to take action on climate change. Rising seas, higher temperatures, and all the other facets of the climate crisis are already having a disproportionate impact on groups that are already marginalized, including people of color and disabled people. We need powerful people to make changes that prevent further destruction.
Maddie Bender, Assistant Editor: I’m a member of Gen Z, the elusive “next generation” for whom adults were supposed to fix the climate emergency when I was growing up. Now, activists in my generation like Greta Thunberg are stepping up to take charge in the face of apathy and inertia. I’m striking in support of Gen Z and for those without my platform or voice: projected and current climate refugees, and species made endangered or extinct by global warming. The stakes could not be higher.
Jewel Tomasula, Consortium member, Georgetown University: I am a PhD student and I’m joining the strike in Washington, DC. I study salt marshes, an ecosystem that’s being affected by climate change. But if we protected and restored salt marshes, we could sequester carbon and safeguard coastal towns from climate impacts. Through my work as a scientist, I can see how the laws and policies on the books don’t work well enough to protect or conserve salt marshes. I’m frustrated by how weak environmental and climate policy is in the United States and I can see with my own eyes how communities are hurting from this political failure. I know that joining millions of people in the climate strike will be an undeniable demonstration that the public majority wants a Green New Deal and our elected leaders need to step up or get out of the way.
I’ve been taught the proper forms of science policy - calling my representative, submitting public comments, testifying at hearings - but scientists have been doing that and it hasn’t been working well enough. These tactics appeal to the existing power structure of wealth concentrated in a few hands, but to truly address the climate crisis we need to create a new structure that’s based on equity, dignity, and respect for people and nature. By striking and joining collective actions, we are following the in the steps of social justice movements that have truly created change.
We won't stop. We'll see you Monday, when our coverage continues.