Pat Taub
GUEST POST by JANET WEIL
The young faces, lined up in rows on the zoom screen, looked ready to get things done. I, on the other hand, had turned my video off and was almost melting from self-consciousness.
“I’m so old, so NOT them. Should I be here?” went through my head as the organizers for Portland Youth Climate Strike led the group through introductions. We were meeting to prepare for the local mobilization of the Global Climate Strike on September 24.
No longtime organizer could have been more savvy at running a meeting than the two high school students (boy and girl), who worked through the agenda. I was struck by how accommodating they were. Don’t want to show your face? No problem! Shy and want to drop remarks in the chat rather than speak? Go for it. Tell us your pronouns. Thanks for being here!
Zoom meeting of young climate activists, Earthbeat, March 27, 2020
When a 14-year-old girl said rather timidly, “I’ve never organized something like this,” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Why should you HAVE to organize a huge downtown march and rally on a school/work day, was my agonized silent response. Why have adults procrastinated so long on climate change (now cranked up to full crisis level)?
Global Climate March, Portland, Oregon, September 24, 2021 (Photo by Janet Weil)
From introductions, the group was directed to a screen with a “jamboard” where we typed our ideas for the march and rally. Little colorful squares, like digital post-it notes, quickly populated a whiteboard space. Accessibility was/is valued by the group. Among their ideas: consider public transit; recruit and pay speakers, especially Black and Indigenous; have online actions for students NOT taking the day off from school; hire ASL interpreters for the rally. They wanted art, music, color.
In the breakout rooms that followed this silent writing activity, I had planned to take notes (“it’s the least I can do” was my thought) but when I joined the “room,” a girl was already taking notes! I did make a few suggestions during the discussion, to be followed up, or not, by the young folks.
Youth organizers want some participation from adults.
One specific request was help with getting a march permit from the City of Portland. Young people prefer to identify their own needs, then work with adults, learning as they go.
Global Climate March, Portland, Oregon, September 24, 2021 (Photo by Janet Weil)
By the end of the meeting, I was glad I had stayed out of my comfort zone and remained engaged.
On Friday, September 24th, that marked 3 years of the Fridays For Future movement, I stood with the young people who will be the most impacted by the crisis that my generation has been the most responsible for. I took photos and tweeted them out. I rejoiced, as I did at the huge climate strike in 2019, at the young folks’ developing skills and voices, at their creativity and power.
And inside, I was sick at heart. It should never have come to this. As a young person with Sunrise Movement PDX recently tweeted: “Imagine if adults in positions of power would do their jobs and protect our future so that way young people don’t have to solve the world’s problems while trying to figure out our lives while our brains are literally still developing.”
Youthful Sunrise activists lobbying for a Green New Deal in the halls of Congress
A recent survey of 10,000 young people in 10 countries by Avaaz revealed that a supermajority of respondents described their lives affected by climate change as “frightening.”
The psychological challenges are already intense, even for relatively privileged youth.
The clock is ticking, the global temperature is rising, and physics and chemistry – and the youth of the world — are not impressed by pledges, only by action.
Climate Action Now!
Women protestors from Britain’s Extinction Rebellion, wearing mourning clothes and pushing empty prams, symbolizing a lost future, August, 2021 (Photo by Dave Rushen)
A retired ESL teacher and fired-up climate/eco activist, Janet Weil lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband. She enjoys spending time with her extended family, and in the great bookstores and libraries in the metro area. She shares political views and her photography on Twitter: @JanetRWeil.
