Photos: students and Montclairites rally for climate change action
On Friday, Sept. 20, Montclair students and adults rallied for action on climate change. At Montclair High School, there was a student strike at 10 a.m., followed by a march through town.
The organizers of the student walkout were juniors Josh Shapiro and Isaac Barry.
It was coordinated with #FridaysForFuture, an organization founded in 2018 by then-15-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Their webpage describes the group as "a peoples movement following the call from @GretaThunberg to school strike." Thunberg decided to strike every Friday until Swedish policy effected changes to be more in line with the 2016 Paris climate change agreement. #FridaysForFuture named Sept. 20-27 the global #WeekForFuture.
Thunberg was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in March, and in September won the Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International.
At 5:30 p.m., about 125 people gathered on the corner of Church Street and South Fullerton Avenue, for a peace vigil in solidarity with the climate strike.
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READ: MONTCLAIR TEENS STRIKE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
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Organizer Greg Pason wrote that he had 125 chant sheets and all were taken, so this number is his best estimate.
Among the chants:
No more coal
Nor more oil
Keep your carbon in the soil
and
When the planet
is under attack
What do we do?
Stand up fight back.