The great movement of young people striking for climate action around the globe brought more than a thousand people to downtown Santa Barbara’s De la Guerra Plaza last Friday, with a second Climate Strike rallying this Friday at noon. Inspired by the example of a Swedish 16-year-old, Greta Thunberg, who first sailed to North America from Europe, then castigated world leaders assembled at the United Nations on Monday for betraying her generation, the strikers demanded a change for the better.
“Change is coming, whether we like it or not,” said Brent Goodlet, an organizer for the September 27 rally and a materials engineering postdoc at UCSB. “What I fear is that we will lose this green beauty that is Santa Barbara. This wonderful climate that harbors a wonderful city will dry out as climate zones shift northward. When the next forest fire comes through, it will not regrow the way it was because the middle latitudes are growing hotter and drier.”
Thunberg, whose every word was urgent, chastised the UN members gathered for a Climate Summit, asking, “How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just business as usual?” Thunberg said climate change science has been “crystal clear” for more than 30 years, but leaders preferred the “fairy tales of eternal economic growth.”