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Youth Climate Strike in St. Paul
2019-Oct-21, Monday 09:18 pmI'm a month late getting pictures posted, but here they are finally. I went to the Youth Climate Strike (a global event) at nearby St. Paul, Minnesota USA. It was scheduled at noon on 2019 September 20 Friday as a walkout event for students to register their disapproval of the future that their elders intended to hand over to them. I wasn't working that day anyway, so I went out to show my support for their effort.
It was a good sign that a crowd was already gathered at the "starting point" of a nearby small park.
It was also good that so many people drove bicycles (instead of cars like this old guy) and that old fogeys stood back, so the youth could have their event themselves. It was organized by youth leaders, teenagers from local high schools. This protest was meant to be their voice, not ours.
It wasn't long until we began the march just a few blocks to the capitol grounds. Police were there to block traffic for us. I couldn't get any good photograph of the whole march, because it was twisting around corners, and there were no convenient points to climb up to peer above for a photograph. These were my favorite flags, though, near enough for me to walk up to them for a quick image. Those Veterans For Peace were also frequently at the local Occupy camp many years ago.
The capitol grounds are also weird in that there's no good place to get a good view of everything happening there. I finally went up on the steps to catch a few photos, which Google was able to stitch together into a panorama.
And a short video clip that I took from the same location.
Then the guest speakers starting coming up, they asked us to leave the steps and go down in front where the crowd could hear. (Plus, people were climbing stuff to get better photos, and capitol guards were unhappy about it and trying to shoo people away from their perch.) I saw a small number of people from work while I was out there. Even though the crowd was significantly smaller than the first Science March, I was glad to see many posters from people still recognizing the importance of the science behind the warning (and warming).
My favorite, though, was probably this very large skull on a dual-bicycle frame. The first poster from this group that seemed to be with the Extinction Rebellion says, "The greatest threat to Earth is the belief that someone else might save it." They're right to call out the climate change deniers. Even if the scientists are wrong about the warming (hint: they're not), why obstruct their efforts to help? Also good is this reimagined "Silence = Death" poster on a green background. Well done. I like it.
I'd already spent more than an hour among the throng, so I didn't wait around for all of the speakers. I heard a few of the high school speakers, including some native American teenagers. I hope they all made some kind of impact. As the group was quoted in the newspapers, "we skipped our lesson to teach you one."
It was a good sign that a crowd was already gathered at the "starting point" of a nearby small park.
It was also good that so many people drove bicycles (instead of cars like this old guy) and that old fogeys stood back, so the youth could have their event themselves. It was organized by youth leaders, teenagers from local high schools. This protest was meant to be their voice, not ours.
It wasn't long until we began the march just a few blocks to the capitol grounds. Police were there to block traffic for us. I couldn't get any good photograph of the whole march, because it was twisting around corners, and there were no convenient points to climb up to peer above for a photograph. These were my favorite flags, though, near enough for me to walk up to them for a quick image. Those Veterans For Peace were also frequently at the local Occupy camp many years ago.
The capitol grounds are also weird in that there's no good place to get a good view of everything happening there. I finally went up on the steps to catch a few photos, which Google was able to stitch together into a panorama.
And a short video clip that I took from the same location.
Then the guest speakers starting coming up, they asked us to leave the steps and go down in front where the crowd could hear. (Plus, people were climbing stuff to get better photos, and capitol guards were unhappy about it and trying to shoo people away from their perch.) I saw a small number of people from work while I was out there. Even though the crowd was significantly smaller than the first Science March, I was glad to see many posters from people still recognizing the importance of the science behind the warning (and warming).
My favorite, though, was probably this very large skull on a dual-bicycle frame. The first poster from this group that seemed to be with the Extinction Rebellion says, "The greatest threat to Earth is the belief that someone else might save it." They're right to call out the climate change deniers. Even if the scientists are wrong about the warming (hint: they're not), why obstruct their efforts to help? Also good is this reimagined "Silence = Death" poster on a green background. Well done. I like it.
I'd already spent more than an hour among the throng, so I didn't wait around for all of the speakers. I heard a few of the high school speakers, including some native American teenagers. I hope they all made some kind of impact. As the group was quoted in the newspapers, "we skipped our lesson to teach you one."