On March 25th, Sunrise Ithaca hosted a climate justice rally in downtown Ithaca. The rally was one of hundreds hosted around the world as part of the primarily youth-driven Global Climate Strike, which demands that everyone take a deeper look at the increasing effect of climate change. In Ithaca, the focus was on climate justice and equity as well as the City’s Green New Deal (GND).
We documented the entire event, which featured speeches from students at Ithaca High School (IHS) as well as Luis Aguirre-Torres, the City’s director of sustainability and head of the GND initiative, among other community leaders.
Upwards of 50 people were in attendance, the majority of which were high school and college-aged students. While support for the movement was evident, the numbers stood in stark contrast to the hundreds of local community members, college students and city officials that showed up to Ithaca’s Global Climate Strike rally three years ago to the day. The decline could be attributed to a number of factors such as poor weather, lack of advertising and the omnipresent Covid-19 pandemic.
Nevertheless, powerful speeches were made by those in attendance. IHS students in particular highlighted the increasing power of youth voices in guiding the fight against climate change.
Simon Cohen, a junior at IHS, pointed out how systemic issues can prevent real change from happening.
“It’s not simply that we happen to be overconsuming … it’s that this could have been resolved years ago … we have the resources, infrastructure and technology to do so.. But because a handful of people choose to keep expanding their profits, they choose not [to]," he said.
Luis Aguirre-Torres expressed excitement at the crowd’s passion for climate justice and urged them to keep speaking up about these issues.
"The only way we're going to produce change is by showing up, by having difficult conversations and pushing our leaders ... This crowd has more than the will, it has the responsibility to take this way beyond the City of Ithaca" - Luis Aguirre Torres, City of Ithaca Director of Sustainability
“The only way we're going to produce change is by showing up, by having difficult conversations and pushing our leaders…” he said. “This crowd has more than the will, it has the responsibility to take this way beyond the City of Ithaca.”
After the rally, we interviewed Torres, who also acknowledged that the burden of this enormous issue should not have to fall on young people’s shoulders.
“It is fantastic that you have kids so young so concerned about this but this is not what I wanted for them,” he said. “When you are 15, 16 or, 18, you need to be with your friends or studying but you don’t need to be holding a sign. That is the sad part, but it just reminds me I have to do this and accelerate the pace.
We also spoke with Siobhan Hull, coordinator for Sunrise Ithaca, about the social equity component of Ithaca’s GND. She said while the GND has good intentions, she wants to see more concrete action.
“I think it's fantastic that the City of Ithaca has chosen to recognize this question of equity, but it’s also what’s really challenging and it’s something that Ithaca has not made a lot of headway toward,” she said. “It’s exciting that it’s there but we have a lot of work towards making sure it actually gets done.”
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