Davis youth represents in the Global Day of Climate Action
March 05, 2023
(From press release) On Friday, youth in Davis walked out of school to make their voices heard! On this Global Day of Climate Action, during a time when hundreds of thousands of youth marched for climate justice Davis youth joined them. Youth from Davis Senior High School, UCD Davis as well as adult allies of Fridays For Future Davis and Davis community members joined together to demand climate action and the end to fossil financing.
Youth climate activists and organizers Eliot Larson, Mattias RowenBale and Desmond Beach led the march from E 14th & B Street down to Central Park where youth participated in a die-in. Youth between the ages of 13 and 25 years old staged a ‘death from climate change’ as a visual example of what will happen if our leaders continue down a path of inaction.
After the die-in youth were invited to speak and share their thoughts, concerns and hopes with the Davis community. There were powerful speeches and heart wrenching calls for action demanding our world and local leaders take action today.
We were then led in song by freshman at UCD, Sam Saxe-Taller who brought our voices together as one before we gathered for a round table discussion with Davis City Council members Gloria Partida and Bapu Vaitla. Ms. Partida and Mr. Vaitla were led by youth in productive and inclusive conversation discussing proactive ways the community can come together to fight the climate crisis as well as listening to the concerns of youth in this uncertain time.
Going forward, Fridays For Future Davis will continue to strike every Friday at the corner of 5th and B Street from nooin-1. Today was their 176th week of striking on Fridays.
A huge thank you to the many organizations and adult allies who join Fridays For Future Davis to help make this Global Climate Strike possible in Davis. And congratulations to all of the youth who bravely stepped up to take action!
It's nice to see our youth so engaged, but what has this exactly accomplished other than getting them one day out of school? This type of "demonstration" strikes me more as agit-prop than genuinely effective action. Theatrics are propaganda. Our youth deserve better than being manipulated by adults with ulterior motives.
Posted by: J.J. Surbeck | March 05, 2023 at 12:00 PM
It's nice to see our youth so engaged, but what has this exactly accomplished other than getting them one day out of school?
That was always enough for me, when I was in school.
More "importantly", what does the Davis city council think of (for example) the war in Ukraine? If they haven't already weighed-in, it sounds like there's some important "condemning" to do.
:-)
Posted by: Ron O | March 05, 2023 at 01:16 PM
As the press release notes, it put them in conversation with two councilmembers; the DE article elaborate on that a bit further: https://www.davisenterprise.com/news/local/ag-environment/climate-strike-hits-home/
The students have been pushing for more to be done at the city level. I realize that not everyone agrees with that goal -- e.g., David Greenwald pooh-poohed it -- but insofar as that is one of their goals they held an event that brought attention to the issue.
It isn't the adults pushing the students here. If anything, it's the other way around, with students trying to get adults to take up the cause. Again, events like this help bring attention and can help get others engaged.
Posted by: Roberta L. Millstein | March 05, 2023 at 08:14 PM
The City needs a youth commission, more specifically one with only minors on it. Right? It would have the same formal rights and responsibilities as any other City Commission....
I am adult, not a parent, and this makes a lot of sense to me.
Curious if anyone else is interested.
Posted by: Todd Edelman | March 06, 2023 at 03:40 AM