Hundreds of students skipped class this past Friday, September 20, 2019, and descended upon the Minnesota State Capitol as a part of international student climate strikes – ‘Youth Climate Strike.’
Students also rallied around the state in Baudette, Bemidji, Center City, Duluth, Grand Marais, Grand Rapids, Mankato, Moose Lake, Morris, Rochester, St. Cloud, St. Peter, St. Joseph, Virginia, Willmar, and Winona.
Demonstrators gathered to raise awareness about climate change and efforts to reduce carbon pollution and emission of gases that precipitate ‘extreme weather events’. The teenagers posed happily with their signage on the steps on the capitol, taking photos of each other with their smartphones – every Instagram post and text consuming energy, not to mention the production that goes into making the devices such as material mining.
They chanted, “We skipped our lesson to teach you one!”
Yet, perhaps, they should have stayed in class and learned that climate has been changing for millions of years and that it is not a new phenomenon.
The protestors called on Minnesota lawmakers to pass legislation to move the state’s electric utilities to all carbon-free energy sources. They also called on Governor Walz to declare a statewide emergency on climate change and block construction on the Enbridge Line 3 crude oil pipeline.
Some groups of students walked to the Capitol while others were ironically bused in by districts from around the state.
Ilhan Omar’s 16-year-old daughter, Irsa Hirsi, is the national co-executive, director & co-founder of Youth Climate Strike and spoke to the truant children:
“It wasn’t always easy…this had lead me to be constantly putting myself into ‘white spaces’ to be able to do the work that I wanted to do…”
Conservatives criticized the students by noting that the same students demand that air conditioners run all day in schools to keep them comfortable. Most of the students had smart phones that require mining to manufacture and wore sneakers that require energy to produce.
None of the students seemed like they were “living off the grid’ that Green New Deal would require.
Despite media narrative conservatives by in large do support clean communities and responsible behavior towards our enviornment. We can all be conservationists and do our small part to help the environment. Instead of protesting in a #ClimateStrike, the day could have been spent picking up trash in our local communities – that’s a cause everyone can rally around.
Protest on your own time and on your own time – not during school hours. Taxpayers are paying for you to get an education – not become indoctrinated, politicized pawns for leftist causes.
