Climate strike in Washington, DC, September 23, 2019 (photo by Ted Eytan/Flickr).
Millions of young people around the world took to the streets for
the Global Climate Strike
on Friday, September 20 to demand that governments take bolder action to
address the climate crisis. Thousands of students took time off from class to
protest again last Friday, and organizers say they plan to continue striking in
the weeks to come.
But youth activists are not just skipping school to protest, they
are also taking concrete steps to influence the policymaking process.
Leading up to the latest strikes, youth leaders met with several
members of Congress, including Green New Deal sponsors Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY 14) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA). They also met
with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AL) and staff members for Senators
and Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie
Sanders (D-VT).
Four youth climate leaders, including prominent teen activist Greta Thunberg,
testified before the House Climate Crisis Committee and a House Foreign Affairs
subcommittee last month. Days later, as United
Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres hosted world leaders at the
Climate Action Summit in New York City, Thunberg and fifteen other young people
filed a landmark complaint
with the UN that contends world governments are violating children’s rights
under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Meanwhile, plaintiffs in the Juliana v. United States climate case
are hopeful that the recent strikes will intensify pressure on politicians and
help move their legal case forward. The constitutional case is currently
stalled, waiting on a trial date.
“This is exactly the type of energy we need to change the
political reality we’re in,” said Vic Barrett, one of the twenty-one young
people suing the US government over their right to a livable future, in an interview with me on the
sidelines of the September 20 strike in New York City. “With the 2020 elections
coming up it’s so exciting to see how many young people are engaged because
we’re such a huge amount of the voting bloc.”
“Who’s in office determines the judges, and if we do get our case
going, who is going to be there throughout the process,” he added. “This makes
me really excited about 2020.”
Youth strikers below voting age are also getting actively involved
in the US policymaking process, specifically when it comes to improving climate
education in schools.
Last month, activists stood next to Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA
13) as she announced a new resolution to
support teaching climate change in schools. Proponents of the resolution have
argued that it is significant because it shows that young people can have
political influence even if they aren’t of voting age.
The resolution was authored by high school, middle school, and
elementary school students involved with Schools for Climate Action, the environmental initiative associated with the National
Children’s Campaign, an organization working to amplify the voices of America’s
74 million children and youth. Lee’s office said the resolution would be formally
introduced in the coming days,
“We’re super excited to show that so many young people around the
country that youth can really make a huge difference in our electoral process,
and we’ve proved that by actually writing something that will be introduced and
passed by the House of Representatives,” said Jonah Gottlieb, in an interview I
conducted for the Political
Climate podcast.
Gottlieb is seventeen years old and co-founder of the National
Children’s Campaign. He was an organizer of the Washington, DC climate strike
on September 20 and among the youth leaders to meet with lawmakers last month.
Listen to the full interview with Jonah Gottlieb—along with Jamie Margolin of Zero Hour, and Kelsey Juliana and Vic Barrett, plaintiffs in the of Youth v. United States lawsuit—in this episode of the Political Climate podcast, presented by the USC Schwarzenegger Institute.
While there is no guarantee the resolution will advance, it stands
a reasonable chance of making it through the Democrat-controlled House. Rep.
Lee called on her colleagues to support her resolution in a recent floor speech.
“It is a fact American students do not learn enough about climate
change,” Lee said. “We need to teach every young person the human impacts of
climate change and how to address our warming planet before it is too late.”
In addition to supporting teaching climate change in schools, Rep.
Lee’s House Resolution declares climate change a social justice, racial justice,
and human rights issue that disproportionately affects students of color and
students in poverty. It also acknowledges research by the California
Association of School Psychologists that found climate change is a potential
threat to children’s psychological and social development.
Despite the large showing across America for last week’s Global
Climate Strike, consistent access to climate change education remains an issue
in the United States.
For instance, while many of today’s most outspoken youth climate
activists belong to Generation Z, the demographic cohort born between the
mid-1990s and early 2000s, understanding of the issue appears to vary across
the group as a whole. A 2018 poll from the Pew
Research Center found that the percentage of Generation Z respondents who
believe climate change is connected to human activities is slightly less than
that of Millennials, the demographic cohort preceding them.
As Eve Andrews recently wrote for Grist’s Ask Umbra column: “just because certain members of
Generation Z … are super motivated to take action on global warming doesn’t
mean many of them don’t need a little more schooling on the subject.”
While some school districts have pushed back on
teaching climate science, there is widespread support for climate education
across the US. According to an NPR/Ipsos poll,
nearly 80 percent of parents support the teaching of climate change in schools.
“If anyone is going to make a difference in climate it’s going to
be schools, because the people who are most likely to become activists are the
ones around you today,” said Jennifer Jones, founder of Green Ivy Schools, in
an interview at the NYC Climate Strike. “The youth are not afraid … I think
that spirit is that you have to tap into. It’s like the world’s most renewable
energy.”
If adopted, Rep. Lee’s resolution could help engage even more
young people in addressing the climate crisis. Varshini Prakash, leader of the
Sunrise Movement, noted in a speech at the NYC Climate Strike that mobilizing more
than 4
million protesters around the world is a major achievement for the climate
movement, but that turnout numbers are still well below the 20 million people
who participated in the US alone for Earth Day in 1970.
“In order to meaningfully act upon our changing climate, our
children need more education about its causes, consequences, anticipated future
impacts, and policy solutions,” said Rep. Lee in her House floor
speech.
The
resolution has been endorsed by numerous groups, including the American
Federation of Teachers, Mom’s Clean Air Force, Sierra Club, and the Teacher’s
Advocacy Committee. Support from these organizations indicates that calls
for action surrounding the youth climate strikes are resonating with more
established entities.
According
to Gottlieb, finding allies among adults is critical for the youth climate
movement.
“We don’t have a children’s lobby. And so … we need a sustained campaign of action from young people and supported by adults,” he told me. “We need to make sure that every single adult that says they care about their kids, votes like they care about their kids.”
Julia Pyper is a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center. You can follow her on Twitter @JMPyper
EnergySource provides analysis and insight on key energy issues, making sense of key energy trends and their implications for geopolitics, geoeconomics, policy, and markets.
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Millions of young people around the world took to the streets for the Global Climate Strike to demand that governments take bolder action to address the climate crisis. But youth activists are not just skipping school to protest, they are also taking concrete steps to influence the policymaking process.
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