US Climate Strike --- September 20, 2019 --- various locations

August 28, 2019

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On September 20, three days before the UN Climate Summit in NYC, young people and adults will strike all across the US and world to demand transformative action be taken to address the climate crisis. Millions of us will take the streets to demand a right to a future, and we’re inviting you to

#strikewithus

Find a strike near you to attend on September 20.... If you don’t see an event in your area, organize one! We’ll provide everything you need to get started in planning something in your community so no experience is necessary. Whether you’re 7 or 77, you’re invited to join the movement. For more information, please visit strikewithus.org.

With the consequences of climate change becoming ever more clear and dire with each passing day, a new powerful wave of the climate movement has been swelling up over the last couple of years. Young people around the world have been rising up to defend our future, and have been going on strike – every week, all over the planet – for months. On September 20, for the first time, the adults are joining us.

WE, AS A GLOBAL SOCIETY, ARE AT A CROSSROADS. WE HAVE A DECISION TO MAKE. ARE WE GOING TO CHOOSE MONEY OR POWER OR ARE WE GOING TO CHOOSE THE FUTURE? THE SEPTEMBER 20 STRIKE IS AN INVITATION TO EVERYONE TO CHOOSE US. CHOOSE THE KIDS, CHOOSE HUMANITY, CHOOSE THE FUTURE.

Led by a diverse coalition of youth-led and adult-led organizations, September 20 is an intergenerational day of striking that will launch an entire week of climate action across the world. Find out more about week of action here.
September 20 is only the beginning. We must carry this energy to the 2020 elections, and beyond to ensure real, bold action is taken to address the climate crises. This is history in the making, and it’s time we take back the narrative to save our futures.

The demands set forth by the youth coalition will be released soon. READ MORE

CLIMATE STRIKE EDUCATOR TOOLKIT from Climate Generation

This Toolkit was created to inform and empower classroom educators to facilitate discussions about the September 20, 2019 Global Climate Strike. It includes background information and history, as well as suggested classroom connections as starting points for discussion. The Toolkit will continue to be added to throughout the month. Please send any suggested resources to education@climategen.org.

We are planning to livestream part of the strike happening in Minnesota and possibly London. If you are interested in receiving information on how to join, please email jason@climategen.org.

JUMP TO SECTIONS

Background

Classroom Connections

More Information and Articles

BACKGROUND

A global movement of youth are at the forefront of today’s climate movement. Young people are demanding action, as their futures will be defined by the climate leadership that we make today. One young activist named Greta Thunberg began striking from school every Friday outside of Swedish Parliament in August 2018, a tactic which was quickly spread in the formation of Fridays for Future youth groups striking in their communities around the world, and a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for Thunberg. Students have taken up this charge in the U.S. through Fridays for Future and partnering Youth Climate Strikes teams at the local and national scale.

Youth are speaking clearly and powerfully to local and global leaders, raising awareness and urgency, making action on climate change a political priority that for many hadn’t been before. These students have called for a global day of action on September 20, inviting adults to strike with them on an unprecedented scale to demand urgent climate action. This will kickstart a week of action to highlight this urgency at the United Nations Climate Action Summit.

Get involved with your students for opportunities to learn about climate change causes and impacts, intersections across many issues, and support your students to take leadership and raise their voices to define their communities’ futures.

Excerpt from an open invitation for all to join the strike September 20, 2019:

Once again our voices are being heard on the streets, but it is not just up to us. We feel a lot of adults haven’t quite understood that we young people won’t hold off the climate crisis ourselves. Sorry if this is inconvenient for you. But this is not a single-generation job. It’s humanity’s job. We young people can contribute to a larger fight and that can make a huge difference.

So this is our invitation. Starting on Friday 20 September we will kickstart a week of climate action with a worldwide strike for the climate. We’re asking adults to step up alongside us. There are many different plans under way in different parts of the world for adults to join together and step up and out of your comfort zone for our climate. Let’s all join together, with your neighbours, co-workers, friends, family and go out on to the streets to make your voices heard and make this a turning point in our history.

This is about crossing lines – it’s about rebelling wherever one can rebel. It’s not about saying “Yeah, what the kids do is great, if I was young I would have totally joined in.” It doesn’t help, but everyone can and must help.

Watch this video: Global Climate Strike!

Or this one!

What are the demands of the U.S. youth strikers?

STRIKE DEMANDS INCLUDE...

Compulsory comprehensive education on the impacts of climate change and the importance of climate justice throughout grades K-8.

K-8 is the ideal age range for compulsory climate change education because:

Impressionability is high during that developmental stage, therefore it’s easier for children and young adults to learn about climate change in a more in-depth manner, and retain that information

Climate change becomes a nonpartisan issue, as it truly is because it’s based solely on science and human experience from the beginning

Promoting community stability through empowering local leadership and decision making through ensuring accessible high-quality, culturally competent and science-based curriculum on climate change as well as by giving local communities authority over the standards, programs, and investments established within them

CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS

Whether your students and/or you plan on participating in the Strike, this moment is an amazing opportunity to bring discussions of climate change into your classroom.

Guiding questions include:

Why do the strikers feel an urgency to strike?
- What evidence is there for a rise in global temperatures?
- What are the repercussions of a rise in global temperatures?
How do we meet the demands of the strikers?
- Why is a youth led strike different than an adult let strike?
- What future do your students imagine?
- How do we get to that future?

The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century (NASA). This temperature rise has happened because of an increased release of greenhouse gases through the use of fossil fuels. These greenhouse gases trap heat in a necessary phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. However, more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are causing more warming that hasn’t been seen in hundreds of thousands of years. Over 97% of climate scientists agree this is happening and that it is predominantly human caused.

The causes, impacts, and solutions to climate change lie in both human and scientific dimensions. Climate change is fundamentally driven by a world based in a fossil fuel economy which many have benefited from politically, socially, and economically. Climate change impacts all of us, but people of color and low income communities bear a disproportionate share of the costs , and it is essential to understand the history of inequity and injustice that is embedded in this system of oppression. . Finally, the solutions to climate change are multi-pronged. Many lie in economic incentives, growing political will and equitable policies, and building understanding with people from different backgrounds, histories, and perspectives. The youth climate strikers are part of the solution in that they are raising awareness and asking world leaders to enact concrete actions moving forward.

In addition, it is impossible to disregard the societal and political denial of decades of peer-reviewed scientific literature, driven predominantly by fossil fuel economic interests. An understanding that the perceived controversy of climate change is not scientific in nature, but based in social, economic, and political interests is essential. Being able to communicate and discern credible sources is also of utmost importance.

The following are a few ways to bring these concepts into the classroom to help students understand the urgency felt by the strikers and the future we can strive to envision.

What evidence is there for the rise in global temperature?

Ground your students in the scientific evidence for the rise in global temperatures. Check out Lesson 1 and 2 of Next Generation Climate (download for free)
Explore the National Climate Assessment. Ask your students to find out how their region, or a particular sector is impacted by climate change.
Read portions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Report (October 2018). Why is it important that climate change is addressed now?
Introduce your students to the Five Characteristics of Science Denial and use the STINK Test to ensure the resources they are citing or being introduced to are valid.

What are the repercussions of the rise in global temperature?

Use Zinn Education’s Climate Change Mixer with your students to give them the opportunity to see how climate change impacts people from around the world.
Print off the Climate Change Timeline and post it around your classroom. Ask students what is missing and what future they imagine.
Use the Surging Seas to see how coastlines will be impacted by climate change. What does this mean for people that are living there?
Watch Marshallese spoken word artist Kathy Jetnil-Kijner perform in Two degrees, Dear Matafele Peinem, and/or Rise. How is climate change impacting island nations and native peoples? How does this impact the native people on Isle de Jean Charles?

What future do your students imagine?

Read a climate fiction book with your students. Use our Cli-Fi reading guide (download for free) to select a good one that helps students imagine the future under a variety of different scenarios. One not included in the Guide that is a great read is Kids on Strike, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Use our Take Action! Template (download for free) and share it with your students so they can not only imagine, but act on a better future in your school and community!

How do we get to that future?

Watch this video describing what the Green New Deal could do as a policy and/or read the text of the Green New Deal. What is it asking for? Why? How can it be enacted?
Learn about Drawdown Solutions and then Take the Drawdown Solutions Quiz to see the amazing solutions that we are already capable of doing.
Do the World Climate Simulation with your students to gain an understanding of how world leaders make decisions on greenhouse gas reduction targets.
Check out our two new humanities modules that use climate-fiction books as the vehicle for discussions on climate change. Both provide real life cases of young people that have taken action and made change in their communities. Download them for free.
Raise a climate change resolution at your school board or with your teacher union. Use our toolkit (download for free) to get started!