3 minute read
Civic Action: Environment
ENVIRONMENTAL CLUB Rises to the Call
Shelley Kunasek & Dan McGill
Upper School Science Faculty
In Spring 2018, Greta Thunberg first began a protest strike outside the Swedish parliament building every day during school to demand stronger action on climate change. In March 2019, SAAS student Ian Price ‘26 became the first local youth to bring the growing Fridays for Future movement to Seattle, striking every Friday outside Seattle City Hall. In September 2019, Lilah Amon-Lucas ‘23 helped organize Seattle’s Climate Strike in concert with climate action organizations across the globe. The organizers of SAAS’s Environmental Club, Sidney Liu ’21 and Helen Belew ‘21, heard the call for increased climate action and responded by founding the club to address these issues..
Sidney and Helen were joined this year by two new faculty advisors, Shelley Kunasek and Daniel McGill, and increasingly energized students, ready to grow the club and make a bigger impact. In the previous year, the club had organized small club events, such as learning more about sustainable food by drying local apples and hosting a plant give-away. This year, though, the club started dreaming bigger. They still planned favorite activities for the club members, like drying local apples and upcycling plastic take-out containers to make shrinky-dink charms. However, they also began brainstorming events that would educate and inspire people within the larger SAAS community to take greater climate and environmental action.
The club’s first aim was to capitalize on the momentum from the climate movement by creating events that would resonate with global actions. For the December 6, 2019, Global Climate Strike, about twenty students made signs and participated in a small, on-campus strike at the corner of 12th Avenue and Union Street. Many more attended the city strike. In addition, the entire Environmental Club worked together to create two huge signs to hang in the windows of the Vanderbilt Building to publicize the efforts of the SAAS students. We hope their words echo in the hearts and minds of passers-by: “When your grandchildren ask what you did to stop Climate Change, what will you say?”
In January 2020, the Environmental Club decided that they wanted to have a more regular impact. They stockpiled many climate strike signs and posted them by the front door of each Upper School building. They will then invite students every Friday to carry them from building to building as they walk along the streets to their classes. This way, they can demonstrate in concert with the Fridays for Future movement every week without having to miss class to protest at Seattle City Hall.
Later this year, the club is planning an ambitious week-long series of events leading up to the major global climate strike after Earth Day on April 22, 2020. The goal is to educate the SAAS community about how individuals can make a difference by taking small climate actions in their daily lives. While a single individual action makes little change, a shift in lifestyle choices of large groups can fuel changes in corporate and political decision-making. The themes of the week will include Meatless Monday, Transit Tuesday,
Waste-Free Wednesday, Thrifty Thursday, and Strike Friday. Students will be able to make pledges to maintain one or more of these lifestyle changes over the course of the month, with the Environmental Club hosting events like Transit Treats and a Clothing Exchange to help support them.
To pull off a series of major events like this, many students have stepped up to leadership positions in the Environmental Club. Lilah Amon-Lucas ‘23 joined Sidney Liu ‘21 to help organize and lead club meetings. Stella Mercer ‘21 and Zoe Khan ‘23 plan to recruit and increase visibility on social media. Margaux Johnstone ’21 manages the budget and event coordi nating. Fiona Kubalak ‘21 plans to help manage the climate week pledges. These students are all boldly stepping up to imagine a different future and create a path for change. ☜
