Welcome to Saturday ...

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"System change, not climate change"


Fatima Zara Alarakha marches in the climate strike in London. Photograph: Islamic Relief UK

New York City

Thanks you Senator Nelson

Senator Gaylord Nelson overlooking the St. Croix River between Minnesota and Wisconsin, a waterway he worked to protect as the first 'Wild and Scenic River' in the United States.

After his election in to the Senate in 1962, Nelson discovered that Washington had no environmental political agenda despite the many urgent national issues. Nelson immediately began the struggle to get the environment front and center in Washington politics by drawing on his experience as the "Conservation Governor" of Wisconsin. In 1969, his idea of a "national day for the environment" — the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 — brought significant public pressure on Washington DC to create a national environmental agenda. Nelson's successful efforts marked the beginning of an era of bold federal legislation and the growth of the modern environmental movement.

At 4pm yesterday, i walked three blocks uphill to our county library and joined our local climate strike march, the largest gathering i've seen in our mountain college community

since the war protests almost twenty years ago. Thrilled to see so many young people and children and especially enjoyed the gusto in which the elementary-aged-kids shouted choruses, especially "System change, not climate change."
Looking back, remembering EarthDay, we made progress, but our voices, drowned along the way in rivers of greed, lay dormant for too long, in the background of corporate noise.
Seeing old enviro friends and parents bringing children yesterday lifted my spirits which have been admitedly dark of late; hope lives again.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1175175377292890112


Thank you Greta

Greta Thunberg at age 15, alone outside the Swedish Parliament about a year ago, in August 2018, holding the first school climate strike. Only a year ago. Not alone anymore. ~ Twitter

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smiley7's picture

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Wally's picture

@smiley7

I'd like to see Bernie give up an equivalent amount of time in a debate or forum to show that video instead.

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smiley7's picture

@Wally
It is moving, maybe Bernie's team will see it, good idea.

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Thanks for the smile smiley!

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smiley7's picture

@QMS
Thank you for being here; also enjoyed this art:

Voices for the future opens with an iteration of Joseph Michael’s artwork, Antarctica: While You Were Sleeping. It features powerful visuals of an iceberg slowly crashing down the sides of the 500-ft tall UN building, intended to bring the remoteness of the Antarctic to urban New York. Rhian Sheehan has composed a soundscape, which together with Michael’s work reflects how icebergs crack, shift and breathe, revealing their fragility: https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2019/sep/20/voices-for-the-fut...

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Lookout's picture

If only the marches will bring action. Great to see the activity in Boone. Thanks for sharing.

Have a good day everyone.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

smiley7's picture

@Lookout
Happy to report that marches were also held in nearby small East Tennessee communities like Erwin. ET has been a republican stronghold since before Lincoln.

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smiley. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Love all the photos but especially the one of Greta.
Hope you are well and I'm glad you could make it to your local march, it sounds like it was really nice.

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smiley7's picture

@randtntx

gerryrigged my sign to my cane and was able to hold it up when stationary. Best time i've had in a while.

Earlier at the breakfast meeting for indigenous people from the Amazon and Indonesia, 19 year old Artemisa Barbosa Ribeiro, a climate activist known as Artemisa Xakriabá, told the Guardian she is thankful for all the young people who are joining the movement.

“ I can see a future where we can make a difference but for that we must be listened to and respected,” she said, describing how her people, the Xakriabá peoples, a group of approximately 12 thousand people who live on the left bank of the São Francisco River, in the municipality of São João das Missões, in the state of Minas Gerais, have watched as mining companies have denied them access to the river and its water.

“I believe they want to assassinate us,” she said frankly. “It’s got much worse in the last eight months. We need support from outside the country because from the inside we have no support.

“The main thing you can do in the west to help is to stop importing hard wood because that is causing deforestation and exploitation. That is the best way you can help,” Ribeiro added.

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@smiley7 @smiley7
Almost like dealing in elephant ivory, harvesting whales, fracking the earth. The extractors must be held responsible. Make them pay to replace what is taken. The earth is not a floating decimal point for bank profiteers' balance sheets. The earth is all of ours' to share, maintain and co-exist upon.

Yikes

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smiley7's picture

@QMS
leading politicians, heh?

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@smiley7
Will take strong will from the masses being affected to push for change. Poly-ticians go with the flow of money. Serious pressure from the 99% is our best option. Relentless focus. Water, air, forests, energy, agriculture, electronic noise, everything on the spectrum is our birthright. To make it healthy and habitable, not scarce and costly.

For the people!

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@smiley7 when she says "they want to assassinate us".
What a world smiley. I wish we could change it with art and music and literature and all the blessings of the natural world.
I'm so glad you enjoyed your day and I like your gerry-rigged sign/cane. I do though wonder what message you carried. Best to you smiley and thanks for your post.

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smiley7's picture

@randtntx
Mississippi rivers dying of cancer at high rates surrounded by oil manufacturing we read of and all the other god awful places, the mines and arsenic laden pools people drink and bathe in and on and on. When will we stand and fight as one, sooner, hopefully now than yesterday happened ...

TRUMP
And his supporters
DESTROYING
CHILDREN'S FUTURE

VOTE

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enhydra lutris's picture

other actions all over the Bay Area mostly to spread the word and then go across the bay to join the SF action. The big question is what the impact today and next week will be. UC did sign on to a declaration of climate emergency, but, declarations are just talk unless something comes from it.

There's a funny irony to the subtext of giving youth a voice, because strikes and direct actions like yesterday are the only effective vice that the those over 18 have too, at least so far. It does seem that some of the narrative control industry is starting to come around on this one issue, but movement among the elites and the elected gofers who do their bidding not so much so far, even in the multi-party "democracies". Time will tell, but, for now, they are lading the way and using the best weapon to bring about change available, now the rest of the populace must also join in.

Heh, got an attitude problem this morning, ah well -

Have a great weekend.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

smiley7's picture

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris
Those young folks need to vote, provided they've candidates worth their time, of course, and there is a rub as money runs deep in corrupt pockets. Nevertheless, perhaps the very young had good images printed upon their DNA yesterday, we can hope.

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Anja Geitz's picture

Thanks for the first hand account of your community's participation in the climate strike march. Nothing heals the heart and spirit better than being in the company of good people for a good cause.

Spectacular picture of the march in NYC. If NYC does one thing right, it's the gathering of voices. Hope against hope the people who have the power to do something are listening.

Came down with a cold, didn't sleep well. 10 more days left until the competition. Skipped the hike this morning to give my sick body some rest. Good news is my main competitor went out with the guys last night. Hope he had a couple of beers. Heh, heh.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

smiley7's picture

@Anja Geitz
Sad to hear you're not feeling well. Sending virtual chicken soup and healing vibes.

Good fun you share with coworkers. Put money down in Vegas on you. Smile

Get well soon.

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Granma's picture

The singing video brought me to tears, also the photo of Greta her first day.

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smiley7's picture

@Granma

Glad you are here, a cool photo from Katmandou.

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@smiley7

on a dead planet.

Choice words. Even the monks are on strike.

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smiley7's picture

@QMS
Afghanistan marching with armed guards moves me.

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mimi's picture

the street is called 'Jungfernstieg' and is the heart or the city. It is said that Hamburg had never seen a demonstration of that size. I feel happy and good about it.
Klimastreik in Hamburg mit Rekordbeteiligung (Climate Strike in Hamburg with Record Participation - between 70 to 100 thousand) There are some 41 images in the article.

In Berlin 270 thousand people were on the streets.
Die größte Demo war in Berlin (the biggest demo was in Berlin)

I think Greta's seriously sincere babyface with big sad eyes made it happen. She doesn't seem to have outgrown her puberty yet. So, I guess emotionally people reacted very confused and then thoughtful about Greta and her message and the Fridays for Future movement grew out of nowhere into something quite amazing.

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smiley7's picture

Thanks for sharing the links with photos...

i like this one, especially. And the kid's sign saying "i love snow."

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magiamma's picture

Well of course I think this is the best ever ot. So good to see so many people out. Thanks for all the links and pics. It great that you could join in. We still have the rest of the week for events. Our kick-off day was super. Hoping this is just the beginning. Have a good evening.

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smiley7's picture

@magiamma
Evening, me too, joy striking. Smile

Onward ...

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