SLO County students to join national walkout, demanding action on climate change
Local college and high school students will walk out of class Friday in a protest to demand “aggressive action on climate change.”
Students from six schools — Cal Poly, Cuesta, San Luis Obispo High, Mission Prep, Morro Bay High, and Templeton High — all will participate in the rally organized nationally by the group Youth Climate Strike.
“When the United Nations came out with the climate report, saying that by 2030 the effects of climate change could be irreversible, that means we need to do something about it right now, before it’s too late,” said 17-year-old Alexa Ford, a student walkout organizer from Morro Bay High.
The list of demands issued by the students include the following:
- The Plains All American Pipeline Project should be opposed.
- The Cat Canyon Oil Project should be opposed.
- The impact of climate change, pollution and pesticides on farmworker health should be mitigated.
- San Luis Obispo County cities should join the city of San Luis Obispo in setting carbon neutrality commitments.
- Chumash land now occupied by Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant should be restored after decommissioning.
- The University of Santa Cruz Zero Waste plan should be adapted for use in county schools.
Students from four schools — Cal Poly, Cuesta, San Luis Obispo High, Mission Prep — will protest outside the County Government Center from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., said Carmen Bouquin, a rally coordinator.
Bouquin, 19, said she was was arrested last summer as part of a group that protested in front of Jerry Brown’s office to ban fossil fuels.
Students in Templeton and Morro Bay will hold shorter walkouts at their campuses at 9:45 a.m.
Speakers are expected to address key concerns about the state of the environment, locally and nationally.
“Climate change disproportionately affects marginalized people,” said Bouquin, a Cuesta student. “It will affect my generation the most. We won’t always have a livable future and our peers won’t as well if we don’t act.”
The movement was started by 16-year-old Swedish student Greta Thunberg, who left her class and sat out front of the Swedish Parliament building in August 2018. Her protest spawned the #FridaysforFuture movement in Europe.
This story was originally published March 13, 2019 at 5:16 PM.
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