Five on Friday: The Global Climate Strike

Fri, 09/20/2019 | by Claire Hutkins Seda

People marching for the climate

Are you joining a climate strike in your town today? MCN’s writer and editor, Claire, headed to San Francisco with 55 people -- half of whom are young students -- from her rural town to join in. Climate strikes are happening in most cities in the United States and around the world and today’s actions are expected to be the biggest climate actions in history. Let us know if you participated, and why, by emailing: chutkins-seda@migrantclinician.org.

As if on cue, Laz recommended this wide-ranging interview with Naomi Klein, climate activist: “'We Are Seeing the Beginnings of the Era of Climate Barbarism.'”

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Claire also (predictably) shared a climate-related article: “A Shantytown’s Warning About Climate Change and Poverty from Hurricane-Ravaged Bahamas.”

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Laz also sent “US Worker, Food-Safety Advocates Sound Alarm over New Hog Slaughter Rules.” Laz warned: “This does nothing to improve public health or safety. Increasing plant line speed also increases the likelihood of mental stress, physical fatigue and musculoskeletal injury to workers. This will adversely affect the poorest of American workers including migrant workers in the food industry.”

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Amy also shared, “Migrant child died after release from detention, attorneys group alleges.”

Jess shared two interesting pieces on the relationships between health, parks, and poverty. Why Doctors are Increasingly Prescribing Nature from PBS, and Healing Through Community Building at Werribee Park.

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Weekly Win: Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who inspired today’s climate strikes, is in the US. She spoke to Congress earlier this week -- and her speech was inspiring. Read the full text on The Independent. While the reality of the climate crisis is stark, her words are a breath of fresh air. Here’s an excerpt:

“Everybody says that making sacrifices for the survival of the biosphere - and to secure the living conditions for future and present generations - is an impossible thing to do.

Americans have indeed made great sacrifices to overcome terrible odds before.

Think of the brave soldiers that rushed ashore in that first wave on Omaha Beach on D Day. Think of Martin Luther King and the 600 other civil rights leaders who risked everything to march from Selma to Montgomery. Think of President John F. Kennedy announcing in 1962 that America would ‘choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…’”

Have a safe and healthy weekend.