OR Youth Call for Action to Save Planet from Climate Change

Eric Tegethoff, Public News Service – OR

BEND, Ore. – Oregonians are joining people around the world today in a call for action on climate change.

The youth-led Global Climate Strike is mobilizing folks to walk out of school and work and implore leaders to step up to the demands of a climate crisis. It’s taking place three days before the United Nations Climate Action Summit meets in New York.

Freddy Finney-Jordet is a senior at Redmond Proficiency Academy in Bend. He’s organizing the Bend Strike for Climate Action and says young people feel the greatest amount of urgency around this issue.

“A lot of the legislators in our current Congress and in other governments are, frankly, not going to be really alive to see the full, drastic effects of climate change,” says Finney-Jordet. “Obviously, we’re seeing those now, but it’s our generation, it’s the youth that’s going to feel the absolute blunt of the force, that’s going to really get those effects.”

At least 20 strikes are planned in Oregon. Finney-Jordet says a number of Bend businesses are closing for the strike, including Patagonia, Strictly Organic Coffee and Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe.

In 2016, Oregon committed to a goal of getting at least half of its energy from renewables by 2040. But Finney-Jordet says the state needs to move away from fossil fuels sooner than that.

He says local strikers have demands for Deschutes County as well.

“For Deschutes County to start looking into better sources of energy,” says Finney-Jordet. “We use a lot hydroelectric now, which is great, but there’s more options for solar and wind that would take away from the small amount of coal that we use.”

At least 800 strikes are scheduled across all 50 states and more are happening in 150 countries around the world. Another event, the International Earth Strike, is scheduled to take place next Friday, September 27.