Massachusetts Climate Strike

By RORY HALLOWELL ‘20

 On the morning of April 19, 2019, approximately 80 students gathered on Boston Common to bring attention to both a specific climate issue that threatens the Weymouth area and the greater issue of climate change. The event started at 11:00 AM and ended just after 3pm.

 Many of the students present at the demonstration are members of the Independent School Sustainability Coalition (the ISSC, a network of 25+ high schools in the New England area). The goal was to call attention to and discourage the construction of the Weymouth Compressor station whose constant noise will bother neighborhood residents and whose air pollution will put their health at stake. Worst of all, this construction conflicts with our goal of building a future free of carbon-emission and other pollutants. A group of ladies from Mothers Out Front brought signs and wisdom to the rally. Other groups involved included: Extinction Rebellion, the Sierra Club, Sunrise, the Better Future Project, and the Boston Student Advisory Council.

 Ariane DesRosiers and I (Rory Hallowell) planned the rally with the help and support of green activists from across New England.  Students traveled from as far as Deerfield School in Westwood Massachusetts to take part in the rally.

 We protested for legislative action in hopes that Massachusetts Senators might hear our cry and enact more restrictive laws for motor companies and the oil industry. MA State Representative Tommy Vitolo met protestors outside the gates of the State House, giving a hopeful and uniting speech. He assured us that he, among other representatives, would work towards a greener future with reduced fossil fuels and more green energy.

         As informed citizens, we have a moral duty not only to ourselves but also to future generations to prevent the violation of the natural world.  This is real and it is today: climatologists predict that major climate change will occur in the foreseeable future as a result of carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions. It is the hope and goal of the ISSC that we first reduce and ultimately eliminate carbon emissions as soon as possible. The reasons to be more sustainable are endless, but if you need a little more persuading, get this: by 2099, 70% of the Alps’ snow cover could be lost if we don’t eliminate the causes and reverse the effects of global warming in the near future.

Student Climate strikes have been organized around the world this Spring. Notably, 16 year-old Greta Thunberg of Sweden started by going to Parliament in Stockholm instead of to school. She caught the media’s attention because she backs up her positions with sound statements and her own sustainable living habits. She has raised so much attention that she has since been invited to speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York and has been decorated as one of Time Magazines’ most influential people in 2019. She commented, “We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis...if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then... we should change the system itself.” Go Greta!

Mark Pang