Nanaimo’s climate protesters added their voice to a global movement today.
A climate strike was held Friday downtown, with a rally at Maffeo Sutton Park followed by a march in a downpour to the Pearson Bridge.
Today’s strike was the latest and largest in a series of Friday climate change protests since the spring organized by Extinction Rebellion Nanaimo.
“We are fighting for government action and system change,” said Emily Anderson, from Extinction Rebellion. “We are demanding that our government and politicians declare climate change as a state of emergency. We don’t have time to wait for procedure or protocol.”
Another Extinction Rebellion member read the speech that teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg delivered at the United Nations earlier this week, and several protesters had signs expressing love, support and solidarity with Thunberg.
“This started with one child, one year ago, going to the Swedish parliament and being ignored by all those politicians and now we’re looking at millions on the street,” said Les Malbon, a VIU professor who spoke at Friday’s rally. “We cannot afford to let the energy we have today go away.”
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