Maine student climate strike demands Green New Deal
A Maine college promoted a climate strike march, where students demanded support for climate change education and the Green New Deal.
The Downeast Maine Youth Climate Strike march at the YWCA in Bar Harbor, Maine on Friday, which consisted of both college and high school students, was part of the Youth Climate Strike, a global climate change awareness push by students, and was just one of more than 2,000 marches that took place, according to a news release from the College. The strike’s list of official partners includes the Women’s March Youth Empower program, Green Peace, the Sierra Club, and the March for Science.
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The Facebook event for the strike listed the College of the Atlantic, COA Campus Committee for Sustainability and Earth in Brackets (stylized as [Earth]) as the co-hosts of the event. [Earth] is a student organization at the College of the Atlantic.
According to the group’s website, their founders picked the organization’s name because “brackets are used during international negotiations to denote text that’s controversial. If countries can’t agree, the bracketed text is removed. It’s pretty clear: Earth is now in brackets.”
The list of climate demands made by the students, which was displayed at the rally, included “keep fossil fuels in the ground,” “honor climate finance,” “promote real solutions,” “climate change education in schools,” and “support the Green New Deal.”
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Many of the event attendees also brought posters with them. They had slogans including “there is no planet B” and “denial is not policy.” One poster also depicted the earth and a cartoon of President Donald Trump, with the phrase “I can’t tell whose time will run out first” written above the images.
One of the speakers, College of the Atlantic student Ania Wright, who is also a member of the school’s climate justice organization team, relayed the mission of the rally attendees in her speech, according to the College of the Atlantic news release summarizing the event.
“We are striking because our future is uncertain and action must be taken now,” Wright said. “We are striking because politicians and corporations are failing to take actions and refusing to accept the severity of the climate crisis. We are striking because we demand future, justice, and action now!”
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The college also shared the above-mentioned release recapping the event to its official Facebook page.
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