Area rallies denounce inaction on climate issues
Valley residents, students call for immediate changes in policy, lifestyles
Madison Bold doesn’t see how her attendance score in high school is going to matter if a threat as massive as climate change is left unchecked.
Bold, 16, a sophomore at the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, was among about 20 students who left class Friday to join protesters of all ages in Bethlehem’s Payrow Plaza as part of the global climate strike, inspired by a Swedish girl the same age as Bold. Millions attended the event around the world, including a handful of locations around the Lehigh Valley.
“If my future isn’t going to matter to people, then why should my grades matter?” Bold asked, while wearing a sign with a similar query pinned to her shirt.
The global effort was inspired by 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, of Sweden, who has kicked off a youth-driven protest to climate change inaction, largely in Europe. Millions poured into the streets and other public places Friday, just days before this year’s United Nations Climate Summit.
Thunberg’s somber speech at
last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference played over the loudspeaker at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at Seventh and Hamilton streets in downtown Allentown as protesters gathered with signs covering topics ranging from the ice caps to nuclear war, justice for Puerto Rico and the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Several Allentown protest attendees credited Thunberg for inspiring them to come out during lunch time. The global effort called on community members to join the students who, in other parts of the world have been striking every Friday.
Christine and Andrew Atiyeh have been faithful followers of Thunberg, and took their daughter, Marina, out of Salisbury Middle School to attend the Allentown rally hosted by Make the Road Pennsylvania and Community Bike Works.
“We’re frightened about the future, and we’re frightened about her future,” Andrew Atiyeh said.
The Allentown rally mostly drew community members, but William Allen junior Erick Litardo spoke to the crowd of about 30 concerning the ties between poverty and climate change.
“I left school today so I could use my voice,” he said. “We must act now. Our people here in Allentown will suffer.”
At Lehigh University’s front lawn in Bethlehem’s South Side, students used a bullhorn to persuade peers to join them in their march to City Hall. There, Lehigh students joined more than 150 others gathering to show support for action on climate change.
“Skip your classes! Save the planet! Join millions!” organizer Connor Burbridge shouted to students shuffling past. A few stopped to watch before moving along, but more and more found their way into the growing cluster of students.
Burbridge even courted the families touring the college.
“Welcome to Lehigh! Join the Climate Strike!”
Though clearly curious, the prospective Mountain Hawks didn’t peel from the tour groups.
Even so, the turnout — roughly 100 by 1:30 p.m. when the group marched across the Fahy Bridge to Payrow Plaza — thrilled organizers. Oliwia Krupinska, a Lehigh senior studying astrophysics, had no sense of the response at the university. The event was organized by various groups in an intentionally decentralized fashion, but that made it hard to understand the reach.
“I was hoping that people would continue to follow this as it grew and keep moving in the right direction,” Krupinska said, referring to the global wave of protests and marches. “I’m so happy with this honestly.”
Students called on each other to make small, personal changes to effect change: Drive less, cut down on meat consumption, start composting. Students were encouraged to refrain from viewing the issue from a partisan lens and take ownership in whatever parts of campus or community they are — be it in their communication classes or mechanical engineering courses.
Student leaders also called on Lehigh University to enact policies and practices, such as banning single-use plastic on campus and divesting university finances from the fossil fuel industry, to combat climate change.
“It’s our job to hold our own school responsible,” Krupinska told the students gathered.
A group of environmental policy graduate students said they had no classes during the planned march. But given their course of study, suspected they’d get in more trouble if they didn’t join the mobilization.
Eliana Ginis, of Michigan, said that being physically part of an effort so aligned with her values felt fundamentally important. Nadine Clopton, who grew up in Bucks County, said she cherished the idea of joining with other young people globally to share the same messaging.
“This is also about showing solidarity with youth around the world,” Clopton said. “I think it’s important that Lehigh and little cities like Bethlehem join this conversation. It’s just as important for places this size to stand up and fight back.”
Kate Warms, a Lehigh freshman, took the bullhorn to announce her “repping the class of 2023.”
“If our politicians aren’t going to do something about this, then we’re going to freaking do something about it,” Warms said to a round of cheers and applause.
Krupinska called on students to keep up the activism well beyond the day’s infectious energy. Brubridge added that he believed the act of marching and protesting served its own value.
“This gets people together to network and start conversations,” he said. “And for young people, getting them this experience is important. Chanting can be contagious. Once you do it, people want to come back to it. We all have it in ourselves to be leaders.”