Two weeks after their rally with Greta Thunberg brought downtown Iowa City to a standstill, the organizers of the Iowa City Student Climate Strike (ICSCS) want to go mobile with their strike, with people all across Iowa City joining in.
“Last week we started our roving climate strikes, where we’re just trying to go from one place to another,” Iowa City High freshman Massimo Biggers, a founder of ICSCS, told Little Village.
This week, he said, they want “everybody to have your own little strikes.”
The strikes don’t have to last all Friday, Biggers said. He suggested a symbolic 11 minutes for people who are busy. (At the Oct. 4 rally featuring Thunberg, the students led the crowd of more than 3,000 people in 11 minutes of silence to focus attention on the 11 years remaining to substantially address climate change before there are wide-spread irreversible, catastrophic consequences, according to the scientific consensus.)
The immediate object of the strikes is still the same: persuading the University of Iowa to close its coal- and natural gas-burning power plant, and replace it with green energy sources.
ICSCS has printed posters with instructions on how to take part.
Step One
Make a sign: Climate Strike/No More UI Coal/UI-Declare a Climate Emergency
Bring a friend, a kid, a parent, a teacher, anyone
Strike with your organization, group or crew
Step Two
Pick a location and time. Suggested locations:
UI Coal Plant
Pentacrest
Jessup Hall/President Harreld’s Office
Your dorm, office, building, garden, farm
Step Three
Go on strike—for 11 minutes, an hour, all day—you decide
Post a photo of you, your strikers and sign to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, email
#ClimateStrikeIC
#NoMoreCoal@UI
#ClimateEmergencyUI
#NoMoreExcusesHarreld
“Send us photos, and we’ll put them out,” Biggers said.
Biggers said it’s important for people to embrace hope, and understand the importance of taking action.
“The more people there are [participating in climate strikes],” he said. “The better the chance [of making substantive change] will be accomplished.”
