Introduction
This young person is deadly serious. Something needs to be done about global warming, and it needs to happen now!! Bard students will rally for action on September 27th with students throughout the world. They welcome participation by anyone who wants to join them.
Background
It was August 2018, three weeks before elections in Sweden, when 15-year-old Greta Thunberg determined that it was more important for her to to protest in front of Parliament than to attend school. “School Strike for the Climate,” said her sign, and she repeatedly stood on the street all alone.
Once elections had taken place, Greta went back to school but continued her protests each and every Friday. (See website: FridaysForFuture.org)
The Movement Grows
Greta’s message and method caught on with youth throughout the globe. On March 15th, over 1.6 million students in 120 countries staged protests (credit https://ideapod.com).
Greta arrived in the US, making land at Coney Island in late August. She’s headed to the United States to speak to the United Nations on September 23rd. She has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Bard Ahead of the Curve
Bard College, however, needed no international nudge to be active in matters of sustainability. They’ve long had an Office of Sustainability, deftly managed by Chief Sustainability Officer Laurie Husted (daughter of LLI member Anne Brueckner). And Bard offers several advanced environmental programs, including an MBA in Sustainability.
Student Activism
To find out about the planned Climate Strike on campus September 27th, we spoke with student Karianne Canfield, head of the Bard Eco Community, a Bard club of campus environmentalists. Karianne stated that they decided to hold their campus strike on the 27th because they had numerous sustainability actions scheduled from that Friday into the following week.
LLI members Are Welcome to Join The Students
Karianne welcomes everyone on campus to lend their support and voices to the students, as they amass on the campus quad (that’s just south of the Bertelsmann Campus Center) between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. They will rally, listen to speakers, and march from the quad to President Botstein’s house on campus, to issue demands for even more aggressive steps toward sustainability.
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