My name is Katie Eder. I’m a 19-year-old climate justice activist, and the executive director of Future Coalition — we’re coordinating a coalition of youth-led organizations organizing and mobilizing for the Climate Strike on September 20th.
You probably already know that masses of people of all ages will join youth in the streets in over 600 US cities. But you might still be wondering, why are all these people striking? Why should I get involved?
Today, I’m proud to announce that the US Climate Strike has finalized a set of bold demands, which you can read below.
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.
We Demand:
- A Green New Deal
- Transform our economy to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2030 and phase out all fossil fuel extraction through a just and equitable transition, creating millions of good jobs
- A halt to all leasing and permitting for fossil fuel extraction, processing and infrastructure projects immediately
- Respect of Indigenous lands and sovereignty
- Honor the treaties protecting Indigenous lands, waters, and sovereignty by the immediate halt of all construction, leasing, and permitting for resource extraction, processing and infrastructure projects affecting or on Indigenous lands
- Recognize the Rights of Nature into law to protect our sacred ecosystems and align human law with natural law to ban resource extraction in defense of our environment and people
- Environmental justice.
- A transition that invests in prosperity for communities on the frontlines of poverty and pollution
- Welcoming those displaced by the cumulative effects of the climate crisis, economic inequality, violence, and lack of opportunity
- Protection and restoration of biodiversity.
- Protection and restoration of 50% of the world’s lands and oceans including a halt to all deforestation by 2030
- Implementation of sustainable agriculture.
- Investment in farmers and regenerative agriculture and an end to subsidies for industrial agriculture
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 .
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. People in over 100 countries are mobilizing for the Climate Strike — and over 500 US locations in all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and Guam, are joining in on the action.
Together, we are the hope for a different future than the one fossil fuel billionaires want to condemn us to. We still have the power to create the change we need, but only if we work together. That’s why we need you.