Boistrous Youth Take to the Streets Calling for Climate Action

By Rich Kaplan

Today, Friday Sept. 20, students from across Santa Barbara and Goleta walked out of their classrooms and into the street, demanding effective leadership on the global climate change crisis. Many gathered downtown at De La Guerra Plaza before walking peacefully but boisterously down State St. Some estimates put their number downtown at 300 others said close to a 1,000. 

Students also departed from school grounds at San Marcos High School, while students from Dos Pueblos were planning to march to Girsh Park. 

The student were heeding a call from 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has sharpened  worldwide perception of the crisis and the limited time in which to prevent catastrophic consequences. In a speech last year to world leaders, Greta chastised them, “You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.”

Youth-led walkouts occurred across the globe and in all major American cities. The actions are part of a week of demonstrations that will resume with the UN Climate Change Summit on Sept 23 in NYC and in Santa Barbara with a rally and march open to all, not just the young, on Sept. 27 at noon in De La Guerra Plaza.