Raquel Juarez, Fridays For Future Utah, juarezraq456@gmail.com
Salt Lake City, Utah -- Today, Utah youth gathered at the Capitol and in Ogden to demand strong and immediate action on climate as a part of the Fridays For Future Global Climate Strike. Organizers estimate more than two-hundred participated in the two actions throughout the state to call for bold protection of lands as a solution for mitigating climate change.
“Today we strike because our Representatives are failing us,” said Tess Carson, Youth Fridays for Future activist and Co-president of the Park City High School Climate Action Club. “They are allowing our public lands to be exploited, and in the process denying us a future. Public lands should be protected as a means to protect us from climate change, not exploited to exacerbate the climate crisis.”
The strikers attempted to deliver near four thousand hand-written public comments to the Governor asking him to protect Utah’s public lands, but his office refused to accept the box of hand-written letters prior to the delivery. After marching into the Capitol and chanting for climate justice, the Governor’s office broke protocol, opened the doors, and accepted representatives from the strike who successfully delivered the letters -- demonstrating the power of the people!
“One of the demands today is that world leaders urgently act in order to keep our planet below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming,” said Raquel Juarez, Fridays for Future activist and protester from Ogden. “Climate scientists warn that we have just 11 years to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half.”
Today’s strike highlighted the strong concerns Utah youth hold for the climate crisis. The event was organized by youth groups including Utah Youth Environmental Solutions (UYES), Sunrise Movement, Utah Climate Strike, and Fridays For Future Utah representatives.
“By striking, I am making a statement that this is more important than my education. Many authority figures would argue that I’m giving up my future for a cause that is a time-waster. The reason I am here today and the reason that I would do anything is that I am afraid for my future.”
During the two hour event, Utah youth spoke on a broad range of issues -- the Green New Deal and Paris Agreement, environmental racism, and public lands as a solution to climate change.
Alan Gutierrez, from the Utah Sunrise Movement, spoke about the disproportionate impacts of climate change on rural and low-income households.
“Time and time again we’ve seen politicians and big corporate businesses ignore issues that are predominantly affecting communities of color and those of lower-income,” Gutierrez said. “Environmental racism is just another obstacle that has been set in place because of the failure of our governments.”
Media: Click HERE for climate strike footage and strike updates.
Press: To arrange interviews with strike organizers, Utah Youth Environmental Solutions, and Fridays for Future Utah, please contact Rebekah Ashley at rebekah.ashley@sierraclub.org.
Utah Youth Environmental Solutions (UYES)
UYES is a youth-led organization that empowers youth in Utah to mobilize around climate and environmental issues around the state through legislation, education and action. Our mission is to connect students to environmental advocacy by cultivating reciprocal relationships between Utah’s youth, environmental organizations, and community leaders. We utilize systems-based thinking to pragmatically address local environmental issues and normalize political participation. Youth Environmental Solutions is a non-partisan network. UYES was founded in 2017 with the effort to educate the Utah State Legislature about Climate Change.
#FridaysForFuture is a movement that began in August 2018, after 15 years old Greta Thunberg sat in front of the Swedish parliament every school day for three weeks, to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis. She posted what she was doing on Instagram and Twitter and it soon went viral. On the 8th of September, Greta decided to continue striking every Friday until the Swedish policies provided a safe pathway well under 2-degree C, i.e. in line with the Paris agreement. The hashtags #FridaysForFuture and #Climatestrike spread and many students and adults began to protest outside of their parliaments and local city halls all over the world, including the Utah State Capitol.