[V]ermont students marched to the Statehouse Friday afternoon to demand state leaders act on climate change, in solidarity with peers from over 100 countries participating in similar events.
“I walked out today to show everyone in the Statehouse that I will not tolerate climate inaction,” said Montpelier High School student Maple Perchlik during a press conference, to resounding cheers from the crowd. Around 200 students participated in Vermont’s strike for climate, which was organized by students from Montpelier High School, U-32 High School and Stowe High School.
At the press conference, students expressed frustration that lawmakers were not passing “bold and comprehensive” climate change legislation this session, Gabe Groveman, a student at Montpelier High School, described hurricanes in the Caribbean, droughts and wildfires in California and increased ticks in Vermont as impacts of climate change already being felt.
“The question is: how much longer will the list have to get for us to finally take action and do something?” Groveman said.
Rep. Diana Gonzalez, P/D-Winooski, spoke at the conference about the need to redirect money going out of state to pay for fossil fuels for heating and transportation, which account for over 70 percent of Vermont’s greenhouse gas emissions. She said a carbon tax and reinvest bill, H.477, she sponsored would redirect $1.6 billion to the state’s economy.
The Vermont rally is part of a global student climate strike inspired by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg. Last September, 15-year-old Thunberg skipped school to sit outside Parliament for weeks, handing out flyers that said: “I am doing this because you adults are shitting on my future.”
Students aren’t the only Vermonters demanding bolder climate change action from leaders. This Town Meeting Day, 16 municipalities around the state passed non-binding climate change resolutions, bringing the state total to 55 municipalities.
Around 10 students affiliated with Vermont Youth Lobby met with House Speaker Mitzi Johnson Friday afternoon after the rally to talk more about what lawmakers are doing on climate change this session.
Libby Brusa, a Montpelier High School senior, asked Johnson whether she feels lawmakers and others in the Statehouse feel the same urgency to act on climate change as the students do.
Johnson said no, adding that she feels the students are helping to “raise the urgency” by speaking out at the Statehouse. She told students that one hurdle to enacting climate change legislation is that there are many issues — such as child care, clean water, and the mental health crisis — competing for limited state dollars.
When asked by students what climate change legislation the House would be moving on this year, Johnson said that legislative budget and tax committees are working on finalizing proposals for weatherization and electric vehicle incentives and charging stations.
She told students that part of the reason lawmakers passed sweeping gun legislation last year was due to the almost daily presence of students and other gun control activists in the Statehouse.
Students said they would be back at the Statehouse, including for a Rally for the Planet slated for May 1.
