On Friday, March 15, a group of close to 20 people gathered at the corner of Kinchant Street and Barlow Avenue at 11 a.m. to draw attention to climate change and to the fact that young people are willing to take action for what they believe in.
The Fridays for Future Strike was organized by 12-year-old Stella Quarry and was part of a worldwide strike fighting climate change, which was organized by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old climate activist from Sweden.
Thunberg has been striking from school to protest for the planet every Friday since August, and for March 15, she organized the Youth Climate Strike. It’s been reported that hundreds of thousands of students in more than 100 countries around the globe took part in Friday’s Youth Climate Strike.
“I was inspired by Greta Thunberg to do this because it’s a problem, and it feels like we’re not fixing it even though we know the solutions,” said Quarry.
The Quesnel strike lasted two hours, and about 30 people took part, about half of them youth. Many motorists honked as they drove by the group, many of whom held signs saying things like “There is No Planet B,” “Stop Bullying My Planet Please,” “Help Mother Earth” and “Plant More Trees, Save The Bees, Clean the Seas.”
“It shows that people care, and it’s kind of hard to see that people care sometimes,” said Quarry. ”We came here to feel reassured that people do care and to spread the word.”
Quarry was glad to be doing something — and to be joined by so many other community members.
“It’s a lot better than just sitting at home,” she said. “I’m homeschooled, so I feel like I have lots of time to do these sorts of things. I felt like I wasn’t doing anything. When I heard about the rally [Thunberg] was doing, I wanted to do something.”
Maggie Ranger came up from Horsefly to participate in the strike with Lacey Hamelin and her son, Mathéo, who is almost 10 months old.
Pointing to Mathéo, Ranger said she wanted to be here “because of him.”
“It’s his future,” she said. “I want him to have a planet to live on. This planet, the Earth. The destruction is happening so fast, and a lot of people aren’t doing anything. It’s an emergency. It’s our last chance to change it up.”
Twelve-year-old Logan Brautigam came with his grandmother and brought a sign he made that said “Help Mother Earth” with a large map with words like “stop extinctions,” “recycle” and “stop pollution” written over top of the map.
“I came because my mom explained to me global warming is going to affect everything and all of us, kids my age and my younger brother growing up,” he said. “It’s going to affect how we live, and it’s going to affect what we do day to day, and I think the government could change that. In my class, we are learning about the ecosystem and how every animal affects another— if you take one animal out of the system, it’s going to affect a lot of things. And I think the government can help.”
Lindsay Chung
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