Webinar: UUs & the Youth-Led Global Climate Strikes

September 6, 2019

Video: 1 hours and 2 minutes.

On Thursday, September 5th Side With Love, UU Ministry for Earth, and the Coalition of UU State Action Networks hosted a webinar for UUs to learn more about the youth-led global Climate Strikes.

On September 20, three days before the UN Climate Summit in NYC, young people and adults will strike all across the US and the world to demand transformative action be taken to address the climate crisis. We know governments won’t deliver climate action and justice on their own, so we’re going on #climatestrike to show them what people power is capable of creating.

We are crafting the solutions we need that align with the values and principles of our faith. We know we will need to transition away from industries and practices that compromise our dignity. We are inviting you to join us as we #SideWithLove & Climate Strike.

Featured speakers were:

Sophia Geiger, National Organizer for Fridays for Future, one of six youth-led groups organizing for the Climate Strike. Sophia is 16 and also organizes locally in DC. She is a member of the UU Church of Silver Springs, MD and active in their youth group.
Levi Draheim, age 12, a plaintiff in a legal action launched in 2015 by two associations, Our Children’s Trust and Earth Guardians, against the US government over climate change. Levi is a member of the UU Church of Brevard.
Charlotte Stuart-Tilley, School Strike For The Climate Tallahassee leader and Fellow at the organization Our Climate. Charlotte attends the UU church in Tallahassee and started striking in January of this year. She is 15 and a freshman in high school.

Other speakers included:

Maeve McBride is the Director for 350Vermont. She works on soup to nuts: grassroots organizing, event planning, outreach, fundraising, and operations. Maeve’s academic background is in river science & engineering, and she completed a Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering at UVM.
Laura Wagner, President of the Coalition of UU State Action Networks. Laura and her climate team are organizing for the MA Climate Strike and hope to engage all 140 UU congregations and their youth groups in MA. She will also share what other UU State Action Networks are doing.
Ana Maria De La Rosa, Senior Grassroots Organizer at UUSC

The webinar was moderated by Everette Thompson, Side With Love Campaign Manager.