By Nicole Manning
The Climate Strike on March 25th, 2022, was a day for many students to speak out and express their dissatisfaction with how the government and older generations were handling (or ignoring) the ongoing climate crisis. Seeing students with their various signs, then listening to students get to speak out in front of hundreds of their peers, made this in-school climate strike, soearheaded by junior Kyle Louis V., more inspiring. Yet at the same time I felt more could have been done to establish a platform for students to make positive change—not only within my school community but within my general everyday environment outside the school gates.
I spoke to various students at the climate strike. Days later, after I’d listened to them express why climate change is important to them and how we need to improve how we treat the environment not only individually, but as a society, I began to have a bit more faith in the future that our generation is paving.
I spoke first to junior Kaya Miller, whose awareness of the detrimental effects of climate change was instilled in her quite early by a mom who currently runs a business dedicated to sustainability. Miller appreciates the beauty and purpose of our modern, high tech society, yet points out, “It’s a scary thing to think that the consequences of our actions can end in extinction.” She goes on to give her perspective on ways that we can do better to control climate change as a society. “I think [about] working towards not necessarily completely solving it, but finding ways to allow the effects to be not as detrimental.”
After Interviewing Miller, I stopped to listen to a remote interview that the school was able to arrange with economist Robert Pollin who recently co-authored a book called Climate Crisis and the Green New Deal. He spoke a bit about the severity of the climate crisis, and ways that we can support governmental regulation and policies to stop this crisis from becoming more severe. Before ending his talk he praised us young people for the actions that we are taking, and for how much of an impact our voices can have in bringing about change.
His speech was moving and effective in its message because it came from a source that had studied and analyzed this topic. Hearing Pollin’s analysis allowed students to get a better perspective. During this climate strike I kept hearing a lot about “the future”, and tragic projections of what the future will become. I definitely related to a comment Kasey Yao, a junior at Manhattan Center, shared with me at one point. “Climate change is important to me because I am a part of the younger generation that has to deal with it,” she admitted. “Kids in the future,” Yao continued, “are the ones that are going to have to live with those consequences.”
The grim truth is that time and time again our vision of the American dream is gaslighted to the point where our society will not accept and take action around certain scientific warnings. Thus most people remain indifferent to negative effects until a terrible consequence of climate change directly impacts them. As Laura Anderson, a senior at MCSM, put it, “The Earth is our only home. We should respect it because it has given so much to us.”
The short, forty five minute rally held at the back of our school was not really enough to maximize this gathering of student voices. Being somewhat silenced by the Department of Education(DOE) in our attempt to fully express our worries about climate change and it’s effect upon our collective future leaves students feeling that hey are not fully supported but he school system, and that there is more to be done.
The next day, I spoke to our student body president, Ethan Chavez. Not only did he participate in our school’s strike, but he also caught the tail end of a carefully organized global climate strike, during which students—not just in New York City, but around the world— left school to march to centers of government demanding elected leaders take immediate action on the climate crisis.
He and I began to discuss the impact of the school’s climate strike. Chavez asserted that although it may seem like such a small action to take, it had, “100% meaningful participation, “ and further claimed that: “For the scale that it was, it was effective enough.”
Many students I talked to after the climate strike proved how conscious young people are of this serious issue that is killing our planet. Climate change’s effects are becoming more clear by the day, from its effects on weather patterns and climate conditions to our witnessing entire animal species struggling to survive. Clearly multinational businesses need to start investing in protecting our ecosphere, and more action needs to be taken politically to support beneficial ecological initiatives.
I, like probably many others, felt there was more to be done within our school community to set a good example for students concerning personal actions they can initiate to create change. There are a lot of things that are easier said than done, but if the school could fulfill it’s promises to find ways to make the school greener and more sustainable, I believe that some positive change could be made. At the end of the day, having watched our teachers supporting students with differing perspectives or ideals, then standing with us in solidarity to take a first step towards change, the climate strike was inspiring— and definitely why MCSM is a great environment in which to grow and thrive.