Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Climate ‘strikers’ ask Lamont to take emergency steps on environment

Hundreds at the State Capitol join millions of protesters around the world

  • Environment
  • by Kathleen Megan
  • September 20, 2019
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

Kathleen Megan :: CT Mirror

Sena Wazer, a 15-year-old from Mansfield who is also a very young first year student at the University of Connecticut, was one of the key organizers of the protest.

Sena Wazer, a 15-year-old from Mansfield, made the case on the need for emergency action on climate change Friday before a crowd of about a thousand youths and adults gathered on the back steps of the Capitol.

“Some politicians will say that small incremental changes are all that is possible, but that time is over,” Wazer said. “Perhaps if we had taken action in the past, we wouldn’t have to take such drastic action now. But we didn’t and now it is a huge weight, hanging over me, my generation and future generations.”

The call for emergency action was heard across Connecticut, the country and around the world Friday as a “Global Climate Strike,” inspired by a 16-year-old Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, prompted hundreds of thousands of young people and adults to skip school or work to voice their concerns and demands about the climate.

In Hartford, they came carrying signs with slogans such as “There is no Planet B,” “We’re studying for a future that might not exist,” and one with a picture of President Donald Trump that said, “Liar, Liar, Planet on Fire.” They chimed in on chants like “Hey ho, hey ho, fossil fuels have got to go.”

Like Thunberg, who spoke in New York, and many of the young people at the Hartford event, Wazer, who helped organize the rally at the Capitol, developed a passionate commitment to the environment at an early age.

Wazer was only five when she learned of the environmental troubles that beset whales — starting with fishing nets — and moved onto climate change last year when she learned through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the devastating impact global warming will have if not addressed by 2030.

“[I]n 11 years, I will be 26 and my sister will be 24, and I still want a safe future for us and rest of our generation at that time,” Wazer said. “We will not take no for an answer.”

The Hartford rally was organized by Connecticut Climate Change Mobilization — a statewide coalition of over 80 organizations. Rally leaders hand-delivered a resolution to Gov. Ned Lamont’s office on Friday asking him and the state legislature to declare a “climate emergency” in Hartford and to take a number of steps including calling a special session of the legislature to enact emergency legislation to address the crisis and setting a goal of eliminating all climate pollution statewide by the 2030.

The governor wasn’t in to greet the protesters, but a statement from his spokesman Max Reiss said that “Climate change is an acute and significant threat to our air, water, health and overall quality of life here in Connecticut and across the globe.”

Mitchel Kvedar, a sophomore at Eastern Connecticut State University, helped organized the climate protest at the State Capitol.

“It is irresponsible to push these issues down the road for future generations to tackle and solve,” Reiss said. “That’s why we must act now. Connecticut is leading the charge in charting a path toward a cleaner, healthier community through our commitment to a zero-carbon electric grid by 2040 and to alternative energy sources, like the bipartisan support for offshore wind.”

The protesters clearly felt 2040 isn’t soon enough.

“Frankly 2040 is too late,” said Mitchel Kvedar, another key organizer of the event and an Eastern Connecticut State University sophomore. “We have to take drastic action in order to prevent the worst effects of climate change.”

That call for emergency action was echoed at rallies around the state, the country, in Europe, North and South America, Africa and elsewhere.

“The voices of millions of young people are filling the streets in communities across the globe, demanding that our governments and industries work together to take decisive action to safeguard our environment and ensure a healthy, sustainable world for our children,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement released Friday. “The climate crisis is the existential threat of our time, impacting every community and every nation on earth.  Tackling this crisis is about protecting public health, advancing a green, forward-looking economy, defending our national security and honoring our responsibility to be good stewards of God’s creation. ”

She said that House Democrats  “stand with you in this urgent fight.  Congress will build on our passage of the Climate Action Now Act, which demands action from the Trump Administration, and continue to advance innovative solutions that create jobs and protect our families.”

Significant timing

The global climate strike comes as the Trump administration has recently taken what activists, climate scientists and others view as its most treacherous rollbacks of regulations that had been designed to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Chief among them is action announced Thursday — but anticipated since Trump took office — to prevent California from setting its own stricter emissions standards for motor vehicles. The state has been regulating such emissions since before the Clean Air Act existed. When the act was passed, it provided for California to seek waivers for more restrictive emissions – often referred to as the California waiver – and other states were allowed to use the California levels. Connecticut is among about a dozen states that do so.

Revocation of the waiver — which has never been attempted — would not only have an impact on emission levels, but it would also eliminate an electric vehicle program known as the Zero Emission Vehicle or ZEV Mandate, also designed to help lower emissions. Connecticut also participates in that. Together those changes could have a profound impact on the state’s air quality, which often does not meet federal standards, as well as on emissions nationwide.  Motor vehicle emissions now contribute more greenhouse gases than any other sector in the U.S.

The Trump administration is also attempting to rollback the stricter mileage standards set by the Obama administration. That rollback effort has faced considerable pushback — including from automakers.

Connecticut has joined other states fighting in court many of the Trump environmental rollbacks. On Friday, Attorney General Tong announced that he had joined a coalition of 24 attorneys general in a lawsuit to fight the California Waiver rollback.

Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, along with about a half dozen state legislators, watched the protest in Hartford supportively from the sidelines. It was the people who had the podium at this event — not politicians  — but Blumenthal said he supports the call for the state to take emergency action on climate.

Kathleen Megan :: CT Mirror

Many children, large and small, took part in the climate strike at the Capitol Friday.

Blumenthal said the country is “on the cusp of the biggest rollback [in environmental regulation] in the history of the United States.”

“There’s a reason that a 15-year-old led this event, which is that young people care so deeply and so passionately about this issue because they are going to inherit the planet that we are ruining,” Blumenthal said. “I suggest they ought to march on Washington as was done right after the inaugural to show my colleagues that people care passionately and deeply and they are not going away.”

In whose hands, the future?

Among those at the rally were about 120 students from the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, including Emma Keane, a senior at the private high school.

“I think it’s very frustrating that I now have to consider the ethics of starting a family — that my future is getting taken out of my hands,” she said. “I refuse to let my future get taken out of my hands by people who don’t care about the planet that we have that we’re destroying.”

Kathleen Megan :: CT Mirror

From left, Emma Keane, Neala Sweeney, and Emma Tishler, all seniors at the Loomis Chaffee School, voiced their support for emergency action on climate change.

Her friend, Neala Sweeney, also a senior, added, “I think it’s extremely important that we recognize that if we don’t do something now, all of this is going to be irreversible.”

“I’m asking you to vote for me, and my generation. I’m asking you to vote for our future.”

She questions whether she would one day want to start a family. “I don’t know if I want my kids to live in a world where they can’t swim in the ocean without wearing a hazmat suit, and that really makes me sad and it’s very disturbing.”

Sanya Bery, a junior at Wesleyan University, said she has memorized the “consequences of climate change as if they were vocab words. I have used them in every essay, exam, or explanation as to why I am majoring in environmental studies and not something I can actually get a job in.”

“Sea level rise. Storms. Cyclones. Droughts. Erosion. Landslides. Flooding. It’s easy to say, just like news is often easy to ignore.”

She said that 20 million people around the world have been forced to abandon their homes because of “such consequences.”

Kathleen Megan :: CT Mirror

Madeleine Lombard, a UMass freshman from Northampton, attended the rally. She is the producer of a documentary called “Under Pressure” about the gas explosions in Massachusetts last year.

She said it is easy for young people to be deemed too “idealistic, too young, too radical.”

“It is not idealistic to dream of a world where everyone has access to clean air and water. We are not too young to worry about having to abandon our homes because they are underwater. ”

She said the call for emergency action is not an “overreaction” but the result of decades of “under-reaction.”

Wazar left the crowd with a single plea, noting the importance of the upcoming presidential election, urging them to elect a “climate leader.”

“I won’t be old enough to vote in the 2020 election, so I am asking all of you who are old enough to get out there and vote,” Wazer said. “I’m asking you to vote for me, and my generation. I’m asking you to vote for our future.”

CTMirror environmental writer Jan Ellen Spiegel contributed to this report.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathleen Megan Kathleen Megan wrote for more than three decades for the Hartford Courant, covering education in recent years and winning many regional and national awards. She is now covering education and child welfare issues for the Mirror.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
What we’ve lost, what we’ve learned during our year of COVID
by CT Mirror Staff

On March 6, 2020, Gov. Ned Lamont announced that the first case of COVID-19 had been detected in Connecticut, and within weeks, life as we knew it was a memory. Schools were shut down, universities emptied, businesses shuttered. Those of us who were fortunate enough to be able to work from home set up shop at our […]

1,500 Hartford school staff to be vaccinated this week at pop-up clinic
by Adria Watson

Vaccinations are taking place Thursday and Friday. A second round will be scheduled in coming days.

With billions in federal relief on the way to CT, legislators assert their role in deciding how to spend it
by Keith M. Phaneuf and Mark Pazniokas

With an unusual bill, state legislators are reminding Gov. Ned Lamont they have significant role in disbursing federal coronavirus relief.

As the push to reopen schools intensifies, Miguel Cardona and first lady Jill Biden travel to Meriden to show how this town did it
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and Adria Watson

Cardona said getting the nation's schools reopened is priority No. 1.

Will getting teachers vaccinated get students back in school full time? It might not be that easy
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, Kasturi Pananjady and Adria Watson

Districts will have to convince parents and students that in-person learning is safe and that students won't bring COVID-19 home.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion The public health bill no one is talking about, but should be
by Brian Festa

On February 16,  the legislature's Public Health Committee conducted a public hearing on two bills, S.B. 568 and H.B. 6423, both of which would eliminate the religious exemption to mandatory vaccinations for Connecticut schoolchildren.  The hearing was capped at 24 hours, depriving nearly 1,500 members of the public who had registered for the hearing their opportunity to be heard.  The vast majority of those who did testify, and who submitted written testimony, opposed the bill.  The committee is expected to vote on the bill as early as  today. 

Opinion Students need more resources, fewer officers
by Tenille Bonilla

"School resource officer" is just a nice way to say cop. But what students really need is more resource and less officer.

Opinion The Board of Regents’ changes must not shortchange its students or faculty
by Carrie Andreoletti, PhD

As a university professor and a lifespan developmental psychologist, I tend to approach my work from a developmental perspective. This means I aim to foster a lifelong love of learning and to help others find a sense of meaning and purpose, as well as confidence in their ability to reach their goals. My approach to higher education is shaped by my desire to provide the best possible education for my students. This is why the recent Board of Regents’ proposed changes at the four state universities have me worried.

Opinion How to close schooling opportunity gaps created by the pandemic
by Carol Gale

We ask school district leaders to trust your public servants whose daily work life involves assessing student needs and planning or modifying instruction to meet those needs. Listen to their voices, as we have, and allocate precious resources on interventions that will offer increased opportunities for Hartford students to succeed.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO