On September 20, hundreds of Missoulians came out for the Global Climate Strike to attend three major events.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg chastised world leaders Monday, Sep. 23, for failing younger generations by not taking sufficient steps to stop climate change. "You have stolen my childhood and my dreams with your empty words," Thunberg said at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York.

Young people are organizing to address the paralysis of previous generations. Their efforts reveal the systemic power imbalance that led to an intolerable status quo. To change course now, we must take public action in three ways.

The recent news regarding the climate crisis is truly disturbing--the Amazon is on fire. The Montana Hi-Line, a major part of the world's breadbasket, has been pin-pointed as a hot spot in the climate crisis which is likely one day to impact the world’s food supply. Yesterday, the Trump administration announced disturbing plans to relax rules around methane emissions—a major contributor to climate change gases. If we don’t heed Greta’s call, what will the future look like for our children and today’s young adults?

One of the most powerful antidotes to despair and feeling isolated is to take action and on September 20 you can join other Missoulians for the Global Climate Strike. Check out this full day of events!

“Under slavery, white people benefitted economically and socially by harming people of African descent. Under the fossil economy, people alive today benefit economically and socially by harming, and perhaps even extinguishing, future generations. Pre-1970s we had an excuse, we didn’t know; and perhaps even as late as the 1990s some could argue that we didn’t know for sure. But now we do know. Carbon emissions are a moral wrong, they are destroying life on Earth, and must be abolished.” Read the full piece, “I am a carbon abolitionist.”

“On Wednesday July 3, by 13-0-2 vote of the City Council, the City of Los Angeles became the first government in the world to create and fund an official City Office and City Commission to develop and implement a mobilization plan, in response to the climate emergency.”

What hangs in the balance for my daughter—for us all—at this moment in history—as we teeter on the brink of a climate catastrophe, and the loss of more than a million species over the next few decades?

First let me say, when it comes to climate change and the uncertainty of the future, leaders can inspire us and we definitely need things to change at the systems level, but I believe we make our own hope.

Now let me tell you how I got there and what you can do to make a difference.