CLIMATE STRIKE AT LAKE MURRAY TODAY AT 3 P.M. AS PART OF NATIONAL YOUTH-LED CLIMATE ACTION DAY

By Miriam Raftery

September 20, 2019 (San Diego) – In addition to student climate action strikes taking place today across the nation,  East County will be hosting a climate action event at Lake Murray Community Park today at 3 p.m. to stand in solidarity with youth activists on this important issue.

Katie Eder, a 19-year-old climate justice activis, and the executive director of Future Coalition is a helping to coordination the coalition of youth-led organizations organizing and mobilizing today’s climate strike in over 500 U.S. cities and 100 nations.

“I’m proud to announce that the US Climate Strike youth coalition has finalized a set of bold demands,” she says.  “Too often, we think about solutions in a very small-minded way, inside the box, way. We don’t have time to stay in the box. We need to be more innovative with our solutions and ask for what we need, not what we think could be possible or has been possible in the past.”

Those demands are:

• A Green New Deal that immediately halts all new fossil fuel projects and transitions our economy to 100% renewable energy by 2030.
• Respect of Indigenous lands and sovereignty — the US government must halt all resource extraction on or affecting Indigenous lands, and recognize the Rights of Nature into law.
• Environmental justice for communities on the frontlines of poverty and pollution, and sanctuary for all migrants.
• Protect and restore 50% of the world’s lands and oceans; stop all deforestation by 2030.
• Invest in sustainable agriculture, not agribusiness.

“We know what we’re asking for goes beyond the scope of what’s been achieved so far, but that’s precisely why we’re demanding it. We have just 11 years left to cut global emissions in half, and to do that, we need to work together to make these demands a reality,” Eder says. “Our only hope of achieving the sweeping transformation we need to save our futures is with the power of a mass movement. That movement that has existed in the US for decades is unifying and growing right now.”

350.org is building a global climate movement. You can connect with them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.