One of the chants the crowd did after marching to the US Capitol.
— Mike Murillo (@MikeMurillo小萝莉影视)
Protesters are gathering outside the White House Friday morning as part of the Global Climate Strike, designed to call attention to the problems facing the environment, particularly global warming.
Marchers gathered outside the 小萝莉影视eum, in downtown D.C., with decorated parachutes to be taken to the Capitol.
Protesters with the D.C. Youth Climate Strike marched to Capitol Hill to call for an eventual end to the use of fossil fuels.
Many of the protesters are students on 鈥渟trike鈥� from school to call attention to global warming and other climate problems. D.C.-area school systems contacted 小萝莉影视 said such students are being given unexcused absences.
Sam Schmidt, a seventh-grader from Takoma Park Middle School, didn鈥檛 care about that. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no point in preparing for a future that doesn鈥檛 exist,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y education would be obsolete if the planet鈥檚 on fire,鈥� said Millie, 16, of Silver Spring.
Eleanor Clemans-Cope, 15, a sophomore from Richard Montgomery High School, said, 鈥淲e are all going to die if we don鈥檛 do something about this.鈥�
She later said from the podium, 鈥淵ou know what sucks? That we鈥檙e out here doing what our parents and our politicians should have done 30 years ago. 鈥� You are not free to ignore this crisis.鈥�
Speakers included Tokata Iron Eyes, 16, from the Standing Rock Nation, in North Dakota, who said, 鈥淲e are privileged to be here [and] we need to be the ones to stand in for those who can鈥檛 be here with us.鈥�
鈥淭he Earth gives us 鈥� everything we鈥檝e ever needed,鈥� she said. Why is it that humans have forgotten how to live with that?鈥� She recommended looking at 鈥渋ndigenous ways of being, indigenous knowledge鈥� to attack the problem.
Sofia Geiger, of Fridays for Future, said, 鈥淲e are the ones with the power; we are the ones in the streets; we are the ones making change.鈥�
Renaldo Pearson, a representative of Democracy 911, who had walked from Georgia to D.C., told the crowd that a critical component of repairing the climate depends on treating 鈥渢he pre-existing condition of our 鈥� broken democracy.鈥�
鈥淭he earth is hotter than Danny DeVito,鈥� read the sign held by Frances, of Silver Spring.
Protests are happening across the region and the country, as well as around the world.
Organizers are calling for a week of protests, with the most ambitious scheduled for , when the goal is to 鈥渟hut down business as usual鈥� in D.C.
Watch the protest:
小萝莉影视’s Nick Iannelli and Mike Murillo contributed to this report.
