Throughout the 2018-2019 school year, young people around the world organized massive school climate strikes to demand that the world’s leaders take immediate action to address climate change. By March 15, tens of thousands of students in more than 100 countries around the world walked out of school as part of the first Global Climate Strike for Our Future issuing a strong challenge to the world’s leaders.

Organizers of the Global Climate Strike have called for another round of massive climate strikes and a week of action starting on September 20. In this round of strikes they have challenged everyone--young people, parents, workers and everyone who is concerned about climate change--to join them.

Let’s Rise to the Challenge

Young people are leading and here in the shadow of the nation’s capital, we have an opportunity to step up and answer the call in a big way: We will shut down Washington, DC. On Friday, September 20th, students from across the region will kick off the action with school walkouts and other youth led actions. Then on Monday, September 23, we will spread the strike across Washington, DC.

The morning of September 23, parents, workers, college students, and everyone who is concerned about climate change will be joining the strike. We’re skipping work and putting off our other responsibilities because the youth climate strikers have shown us that we cannot wait any longer to take bold action to confront climate change. We also know that the stakes are too high to allow business to continue as usual so we will be taking decentralized but coordinated direct action to shut down as much of the city as possible.

We do not take this action lightly. We recognize that a strike will cause massive disruption to our city and will cost big companies millions of dollars. But for decades we have failed to take action at the scale or scope needed to address the climate crisis, and now we know that the cost of inaction is simply too great to ignore.

The climate crisis is here. People around the world are experiencing superstorms, floods, droughts and wildfires at unprecedented rates. Millions of people are seeing their lives and livelihoods transformed by environmental changes and tens of thousands have been pushed from their homes, forced to make long and dangerous journeys across borders in search of safety and new opportunities. For too long, politicians and corporations have put off meaningful action to confront the climate crisis, promoting false solutions and half-measures.

Young people around the world are rising to the challenge by organizing bold actions all over the world to disrupt business as usual. September 2019 can be a turning point. This is our opportunity to hear the cries of our great granddaughters and all of the future generations and come together to take bold action to calm the climate crisis down.

Young people have led the climate strikes and now they are calling on everyone to join them. In Washington, DC we are going to rise to the challenge!