Global Climate Strike: 20,000 Strong!
On Friday, September 27th, I had the opportunity to attend the main Global Climate Strike event. I attended, with an estimated 20,000 other people, to march in solidarity for the environment and its inhabitants. Having attend the first climate strike in Victoria last Friday, I can say the turn out this time had a much wider reaching effect as far as size and energy goes – not that the last strike wasn’t effective, it was just much smaller. I also ran into at least 10 familiar faces, half of which were from my UVic cohort. Yes!!! I had been disappointed last week when none of my cohort showed up at the strike, and had my fingers crossed to see some at this event.

What it Meant to Me
This strike really opened my eyes to the amount of people who are concerned about the climate crisis. It felt really good to be around like-minded people in that sense, and know t

hat something very important to me was shared with thousands of others. I feel like it is not uncommon to feel as though talking about climate change is a taboo subject that shouldn’t be discusses with everyone – kind of like politics (and it is political!). This strike made me feel supported in my belief, and it gave me great hope that we can pull through as a society if we can come together to create change.

So Many Young Ones!
I was also really taken aback, and may have shed a tear or two, when the amount of youth/child attendees registered in my brain. When I was in high school, ten years ago, most of mypeers AND MY TEACHERS scoffed or laughed at me when I passionately addressed the topic during class discussion. I was labelled as “the hippie” and “the activist”, not just seen for caring about something very important to all beings. This left me with a great amount of anger and feeling of disconnection to those around me, but it also fuelled me to keep educating myself and having difficult discussions with others who had different beliefs. To see so many youth involved and passionate about climate justice / environmentalism really gave me hope that we are moving forward as a society. However, I still do have a great deal of climate anxiety, and much of this is the result of very real, sad truths.

A Final Note on Loss and Educating Climate Deniers
I take climate change very seriously. As inspiring and exciting as this issue was, it also came with some sadness. I made the decision to un-friend a friend of over 10 years because of their denial of climate change and decision to support the Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. While I feel great loss because of this, I just cannot understand how someone could deny climate change as it is a very real, and happening crisis. In the near future I will reach out to this friend and see if a conversation about the issue is possible. I have to go prepared, however, as the conversation will be a long one and likely heated. Has anyone else been in this, or a similar, position? How did you approach it? did you approach it?