Climate strike brings out Shoreline / LFP students and adults to march

Saturday, September 21, 2019

The head of the march - coming from Log Boom Park
on the Burke Gilman Trail
Photo by s cho


By Diane Hettrick

The website 350.org is "an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all."

350.org said that today's Climate Strike was "the biggest distributed climate mobilisation ever seen. Organizers estimate that over four million people took to the streets today, kicking off a week of actions in which more than 5,800 events will take place in 163 countries in all corners of the globe."

They stopped on both sides of Bothell Way
to wave signs at motorists
Photo by s cho

Friday's strike was youth-led. Climate change is one of the biggest issues for youth. They are paying attention to the scientists' warnings about what human action and inaction are doing to the planet and are all too aware that global leaders are doing very little to stop the damage. They see their future and they don't like it.

Crossing Bothell Way NE
Photo by s cho


So Friday they took to the streets.

They spread out a bit, going up the hills in LFP
Photo by s cho


In Lake Forest Park and Shoreline students and adults marched from Log Boom Park in Kenmore, down the Burke Gilman Trail in Lake Forest Park, across towns to Shoreline City Hall and Shorewood High School, then continued down Richmond Beach Road to RB Saltwater Park.

They carried signs that said "We are running out of time" "There is no Planet B" "The water is rising - and so are we" "Think or swim" "Science is not a liberal conspiracy"

By the time they got to Shoreline City Hall,
they had picked up a fair amount of trash
Photo by Todd Staheli

And they carried garbage bags and picked up trash along the way.

They are in their teens now and at 18 they will be able to vote. If all the millions who marched today also vote, they may be able to change their future for the better.

Students at the finish line after an
eight mile march across two cities
Photo by Todd Staheli


Gov. Jay Inslee, whose presidential campaign was successful in getting climate change on the radar of every Democratic candidate, said,
"People ask me why I’m still optimistic we can defeat the climate crisis. It’s because of days like today."



4 comments:

Anonymous,  September 21, 2019 at 6:18 AM  

The hypocrisy is great with theses adult and children. They hold signs made of wood and paper, harvested from the very tree featured on the Cascadia flag. That wood and paper was created using fossil fuels (chainsaws, skid loaders, trucks). Those folks certainly didn't harvest or create the wood sticks or paper. Should we address the plastic markers filled with environmentally hazardous chemicals to write the messages?

Then you have the children and adults wearing shoes and clothing made from non-sustainable/plastic fibers and made in overseas factories powered by coal and by people making pennies on the dollar. The one boy is wearing a synthetic fiber jacket that when washed, spins off plastic microfibers that end up in our oceans.

Then you have a nylon flag made from petroleum by-products on an aluminum pole made from metals pulled from the earth by fossil fuel vehicles.

If these parents, city council member and children had truly practiced what they were preaching and protesting against, they would have worn clothing sustainably grown, harvested and manufactured by hand. They would have harvested the wood themselves and made the paper from hemp or a more sustainable plant product.

Anonymous,  September 22, 2019 at 4:13 PM  

If people really were interested in solving this problem, they would undertake the two actions that have the most effect on carbon pollution.

1. Limit yourself to 0 or 1 child. The world has plenty of children. When you have multiple children who will themselves become consumers of plastic, oil, and energy, you directly contribute to the problem.

2. Speak up against immigration. World population is booming because of unchecked population growth in developing countries. By accepting their emigrants into our society, we serve as a relief valve and act as an enabler to their countries' failed policies.

We have too many humans now for the phytoplankton and the trees of the taiga to clean up after us. We need a long, slow population decline to restore balance.

Central to that goal is putting firm limits on immigration, because communication and transportation have never been faster. Emma Lazarus's poem on the Statue of Liberty was a 19th Century idea, just like homesteading the West and eliminating the first people who lived there. It is time for old ideas to be supplanted to meet global needs. We cannot simultaneously grow our population and be environmentally responsible.

Anonymous,  September 22, 2019 at 5:25 PM  

This is great! Well done, youth organizers and adults who participated. Let's keep the momentum going. Are there any Shoreline-based climate action groups?

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