A local-environmental activist has organized a March 15 student strike to protest climate policy.
The Youngstown event, part of a “national strike for climate action,” will occur from noon to 2 p.m. on Friday, March 15 at Wick Park on Youngstown’s North Side. The gathering will include local and guest speakers, poetry and music.
Organizer Cody Clark said the Youngstown event was created in response to “a problem with accessibility.” Clark said local students wanted to participate in the March 15 strike, but couldn’t manage traveling to events elsewhere in Ohio.
So Clark created an event for Youngstown. The effort, which took two to three weeks to organize, used social media and email for outreach.
Austin Bashore, the head of Ohio Young Greens, is scheduled to speak and representatives from the Ohio Sierra and Ohio Sunrise chapters have been invited to attend.
The Youngstown strike is part of an international student effort demanding changes in environmental policy.
Clark said the event will allow area students “to meet, stand up, and use that platform to share art and poetry” while addressing concerns for the environment.
Sixteen-year old Swedish student Greta Thunberg organized the weekly protests that have spread worldwide. (Photograph by Jan Ainali via Wikipedia)Clark described the student protesters, in general, as “ranging from 13 to 19 and 20” or “the generation that will inhabit the world next.
Swedish student Greta Thunberg started the “Fridays for Future” protests by striking from school every Friday. The strikes, which began last August, have spread worldwide. In the U.S., student organizers are calling for a move to renewal energy, upgrades to the nation’s electrical grid, and bans on the construction of new pipelines and coal plants.
In a prepared statement, Clark added: “On March 15th, young people across the world are striking from school, calling for government officials to acknowledge and take action on the climate crisis. Join the youth of Youngstown, strike from school or work and come to Wick Park to prove to legislators that we will not be ignored. Come for education, come for solidarity, come for action. Everyone is welcome.”
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