Why the climate strike is a social justice issue
Why the climate strike is a social justice issue
By Rosario Guzman
IBON.org
First of a two-part series
(Note: As this article goes to press, one of the Philippine groups organizing for the global climate strike is under surveillance by State security forces and has received reports of an impending raid on their headquarters.)
Around the globe on September 20, the youth are leading a coordinated strike to protest government and business inaction on climate change. The climate strike is anticipated to be one of the largest environmental rallies in history.
On Monday, September 23, the United Nations (UN) will hold a climate action summit, which is more of an emergency meeting ostensibly to seriously increase their commitments in reducing carbon emissions under the otherwise watered-down 2015 Paris climate accord.
It seems however that the youth are not expecting any dramatic outcome from the UN meeting. They are planning another global strike for September 27 and every Friday thereafter until a drastic, genuine, official action is taken.
While the climate issue appears to affect everyone, there are climate change deniers. Led by the US and neoliberalism’s apologists, they focus their efforts not on presenting contrary evidence but simply on discrediting climate activists whom they tag “crisis-ists” or “crisis alarmists”. The deniers are saying that the young people are simply being used by the climate activists to paint an irrevocable apocalypse for the planet and to call for system change.
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