On Friday, September 20, many students from cities such as Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles protested the current issues of climate change. The protests which were partially inspired by Greta Thunberg, a 16 year old Swedish environmentalist, who attended the U.N. Climate action summit which took place this past weekend, from September 21 – 23. The strikes happened in over 163 countries, with over 2,500 events taking place. These events had millions of people attend and participate. 

Thunberg who attended the Climate Change Summit had this to say to the world leaders attending the summit, “You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.” 

These powerful words uttered by this young activist brought many world leaders to agree with her, and say that they had been failing to do their jobs to curb climate change. One such leader, Allen Michael Chastanet who is the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, a Carribean Island Nation commented on the remarks by Thunberg and had this to say, “I want to echo the sentiments and the emotion of Greta — that she could come here and condemn us all,” “and deservedly so.”

The strikes in the United States specifically could be a response to the current administration’s views on climate change, and their attempts to remove or roll back certain restrictions that have been placed. Such laws as the Clean Water Act, which protects streams, rivers, and other such bodies of water. The Trump administration sought to redefine/restrict which of these bodies of water should or should not be protected. Some of these redefinings, and restrictions led to about 51 percent of wetlands and 18 percent of streams across the U.S. lose their federal protections.