Climate Corner

Ava Gleason (ECOS Correspondent)

Table of Contents:

Science Trumps Personal Beliefs

The political parties in America contribute to shapings our society. They clearly affect and impact policies, whether we like it or not, and they also affect the relationships we have with our family or who we hang out with. In some cases, political parties divide families: expressing your political party is almost like writing “liberal” or “conservative” right on your forehead and keeping it there forever.. I don’t usually talk to my extended family about abortion, immigration, or other pressing issues because, first, I do not want to and, second, people get hurt when you do not have the same opinion as them; it only worsens the divide.

More and more people are starting to believe that climate change is the most important issue that the country and world are facing, but it is extremely hard for activists to get their point across or even talk about their facts-- real-life science -- when they instantly get labeled “a crazy liberal”. It makes sense to be divided on issues such as abortion, immigration, and economics, but it does not make sense to be divided on facts of science, because generally, scientists and science are what we should be believing in: they have evidence.

It is unfathomable that we have actual data and physical evidence that climate change is real, yet some people cannot seem to bring themselves to believe such a “crazy notion” that most of us know as the truth. It is better for everyone if we start acknowledging our faults and doing things to fix them, but some are too afraid to stand up because they are afraid they will get labeled as something they are not: a crazy liberal. People in our own country are being affected by this every day. One would have to be completely oblivious to not realize that these catastrophic weather events are occurring as a result of human behavior, not because of God or some other higher spiritual power.

At the most recent climate strike on the 20th of September, someone started chanting and yelling “dump Trump” and although most attendees agreed with the statement (because of his denial of Climate Change) this action still should not have happened. It was once again creating a divide between parties, that we neither want nor need.

Personal beliefs should not interfere with facts and science; political party affiliation should not constrict thoughts to the point where you don’t believe in science anymore. Not believing in science is like debating the weather.

Climate Strike

On September 20, 2019, around 2,000 Maine Climate Activists gathered at Portland City Hall to strike for Climate Justice.

The students who participated in this were not trying to skip school or skip class, we were simply trying to fix the mistakes and problems, that we inherited from the previous generations. We are receiving the burden and the consequences of other people’s choices. Their choice to ignore the facts and climate crisis, something that we have known about for years. We are not blaming all the adults, some of them have been on the side of the environment all along, and some have “switched sides” because they started to pay attention to the science and they watched us, children, fight for what’s right. But our current administration can’t quite believe us…..which for me, and I think for anyone, is a crazy notion. It is odd to think that the face of our nation is ignoring the facts of well-educated scientists and ignoring the catastrophic weather we are having, a result of the climate crisis.

With Trump denying facts, and civilians as well, and no change happening, we need to be the change.

We are demanding climate justice because we do not want our kids (although many are now vowing not to have children because of the issue) to have to miss class because of mistakes we made.

So thank you, to the students, teachers, parents, grandparents, and volunteers, who stood in the heat, chanted, carried posters and showed everyone what democracy looks like.

Some pictures from the strike!

Descriptions of the pics (from left to right)

1. Me speaking!

2. The crowd from the steps. This picture does not show how many people were actually there.

3. My adorable grandmother supporting me, a speaker at the strike, and all the other youth activists. She showed that environmental activism has no age!

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