SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va., – Across the globe, students are going on strike to protest climate change. The movement began August 2018, when Greta Thunberg would take Fridays off of school to stand outside of the Swedish Parliament building to protest climate change.
At 16-years-old Thunberg has made headlines encouraging people to fight to reverse climate change. The activist has gotten a lot of youth to join her in the movement.
When Madison Hale, a student at Shepherd University received an email about the global climate strikes she knew she had to get involved. She decided to organize a rally for the students and community in Shepherdstown. “I was looking at the locations around the world, and I saw the closest one was in Frederick, which seemed kind of far so I wanted to one here on campus. And planned it within the last week.”
Hale planned a climate rally in Shepherdstown to peacefully protest climate change. Students and community members joined together to walk through campus with signs and chants about climate change and the environment, educating those who passed by.
A woman visiting her daughter from Delaware said, “This is a serious problem that we’re facing and somebody better act soon.”
“This earth is where we live, there is nowhere else to go if it gets destroyed,” said Claire Newton who is 12-years-old.
Students from the Wind Dance Farm and Earth Education center said that they came to protest because they learn about the Earth at the education center and they love it.
The rally began at the midway on the Shepherd University campus and students and community members walked through campus towards the wall in town where they stayed for two hours.