The rallying cry at the Climate Strike in front of the Statehouse was, "Who is going to save the globe?"
Over 50 activists of all ages stood up for the environment Friday to demand immediate action on climate change during the local component of hundreds of protests that took place all over the globe Sept. 20.
The event, organized by a local chapter of the Sierra Club, started at 10 a.m. and featured an opportunity for activists to share their testimonies about the importance of saving the environment.
The Seiler family, made up of Lars, his wife Tracy and two children, Odette and Wolfgang, rode to the event together on bicycles. Odette is a Girl Scout and is heavily involved in climate activism. She said she has followed the journey of Greta Thunberg, a youth climate activist, as she traveled across the Atlantic ocean in a carbon neutral boat.
“She's one of my idols,” Odette Seiler said about Thunberg.
Lars Seiler said he was proud of his children and how they are seriously taking up the mantle of living sustainably.
“They're really active, [they are] riding the bike a lot; trying to do the right thing,” he said.
Some USC students also attended the event, speaking before the crowd and holding signs.
Wren Trevino, a second-year marine science student from Summerville, said she feels the world is ignoring the existential threat of climate change.
“A lot of people aren’t actually aware of just how soon we’re going to start really seeing the effects of it, and it’s really important to start changing things drastically, like, right now,” Trevino said.
Some students are getting involved by starting a USC chapter of the Sierra Club.
One of the organizers, Caitlyn Lizana, is a fourth-year environmental science student from Blythewood. She spent her time at the rally presiding over a list of names and email addresses from students interested in joining the new group.
“We are hoping to mobilize a lot more people than we would if there wasn’t this kind of organization on campus, and really kind of educate more people and get more people involved,” Lizana said.
One of the largest groups in attendance was Jennifer Mancke’s class from Harmony Elementary, a non-traditional school that puts kids in grades 1-5 in one big room. Mancke led more than a dozen schoolchildren to the event, where they made protest signs on the Statehouse grounds and hung a banner made by the students for International Peace Day.
Natalie Kaufman, one of the Harmony kids who attended the rally, is an 11-year-old girl who just entered fifth grade. She said she wants serious change to happen to help her generation and all that follow.
“We only have one Earth, and we need to take what we have left and take care of it,” Kaufman said.
Kaufman and many of her classmates took to the microphone several times to speak to the crowd about environmentalism and sang “We are the World” and “Light a Candle for the World” to a clapping audience.
The morning event carried on until 2:30 p.m. and was followed by a sequel event organized by Columbia Resilience at 5:30 p.m., which featured live music and more demonstrations and testimony.
Current estimates list this climate strike as one of the largest ever of its kind, with around four million people participating all over the world.