Saint John Students Hold Climate Strike

Students from Saint John’s four high schools gathered in front of City Hall on Thursday to push for action on climate change.

The students held signs and chanted things like “be the solution, not the pollution” and “change, change, we want change.”

Brycen Schofield, a Grade 11 student at Saint John High School, was one of the organizers of the event.

Schofield said the climate strike was started in Sweden by a girl named Greta Thunberg.

“She started a movement called ‘Fridays For Future‘ because every Friday she would strike school for climate awareness,” said Schofield. “That’s slowly spread to other countries and now it’s an international event.”

Schofield said people are not acting when it comes to climate change and they wanted to get the message across.

Students from #SaintJohn’s four high schools are in front City Hall today for a strike against climate change. pic.twitter.com/jmw94r1iKh

— Brad Perry (@BradMPerry) May 2, 2019

The decision was made to hold Saint John’s climate strike on Thursday because students do not have school this Friday.

Student Alex Gallant said his generation is the one which will have to deal with the impacts of climate change.

“Everyone before me, the millennials, have failed. I have two sisters that are older than me, their generation failed, and now it’s up to us,” Gallant said.

“We only have 12 years and this is a serious crisis.”

A recent report from a U.N. climate change panel says the planet needs to make “unprecedented changes” by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

Schofield said they do not want people to think they are protesting the city and Mayor Don Darling.

“That’s not the problem. The problem is so embeded into the international community that we’re just trying to set the precedent,” he said.

“We want the information spread, we want the message heard.”