Hundreds of Buffalo community members showed up at Niagara Square to demand the government to take climate action as part of Friday’s Global Climate Strike.
So did students on campus.
Millions of protesters across the globe took to the streets “concerned and tired” of politicians’ and businesses’ responses to climate change. And –– in an act of global unity and solidarity –– held up signs and shared their voices. Student Association’s Environmental Affairs Assistant Director Sadie Kratt led the climate strike at UB, as students marched around campus and ended up at President Satish Tripathi’s office in Capen Hall. Students marched to his office to protest UB’s impact on the climate, but President Tripathi and other UB administrators were not present.
Kratt said the “main root” of the student protest was to take down fossil fuel industries.
“[We] are lucky to be located in the Great Lakes Region, as it acts as a buffer for the climate change effects,” Kratt said. “But people in the global south will be the ones to suffer and since these are typically impoverished areas, they are not ready to handle these effects and they need help.”
UB students came together to specfically protest the UB Foundation’s investments in fossil fuel companies. The Investigative Post, in 2017, revealed that the foundation was investing in EnCap Flatrock Midstream, which funds natural gas and oil industries.
“I am doing this because I want my kids to have a good life, and climate change is honestly scary,” Noah Weinstock, a senior industrial engineering major, said.
Weinstock said he believes climate change is something to be afraid of and UB’s divestment in fossil fuels can lessen that fear.
“I think there are a lot of ordinary people here at UB who want to do their part for the environment and really make things better,” Weinstock said. “UB divesting in fossil fuels absolutely is the solution and that starts with President Tripathi and getting the people in charge involved so that we can do our part as a university.”
The rally at Niagara Square, organized by the WNY Youth Climate Council, opened with a speech by Jamie Moore, a junior Niagara University environmental science major, on the dangers of inaction, including global food shortage and drought.
“We have a responsibility to our future selves, to our children and grandchildren, to take action today,” Moore told the crowd. “Otherwise, we are on the path to our planet becoming uninhabitable.”
Buffalonians Janet Goodsell and Elizabeth Kauffman attended the rally in solidarity with young people and spoke of their concerns for them, like their children and grandchildren, who will have to “bear the brunt of the climate crisis.”
“We want to leave them a world they can live in, like we were born into,” Goodsell said.
“I’ve been doing environmental protests for years and years,” Kauffman said. “It’s critical now. It’s absolutely critical.”
Throughout the rally, speakers addressed the audience, covering topics from climate science to the importance of demonstration.
UB architecture professor Nick Rajkovich shared and discussed the power of young people.
“This is the thing that will define your generation.” Rajkovich told the crowd. “Find the things that get you excited and make it happen. The world needs you to make it happen.”
Akron High School seniors Julia George and Maria Johnson said climate change is a topic that should be important to everyone.
“It’s something we can all unite under. We all stand on the same Earth and I think it’s something that we should stand for,” George said.
“The environment is the basis of our life. Without it, what are we gonna do? We can’t let this go,” Johnson said.
The girls had a message: to stand up for what you believe in.
“Without people like this,” Johnson said, gesturing to the crowd. “Nothing’s going to change.”
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