On September 20th, hundreds of high school students and adults came to support something they believe in: Climate Change. Greta Thunberg, a teenager from Sweden, organized worldwide strikes, hoping to raise awareness with our government officials. The downtown strike was full of passionate supporters who protested for hours. They met at Diridon Station and marched until they reached City Hall. 

Lion Tales interviewed a group of supporters that attended, named The Raging Grannies,  who are a part of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. We asked them their opinion on the most efficient way to manage climate change and one woman said “get rid of fossil fuels. The animal agriculture industry is responsible for 18% or more of the fossil fuels released into the earth.” She suggests lowering your animal meat intake in every meal, eventually cutting out meat in your diet overall; she has been vegan for almost 30 years and claims “I’m so committed, and now that I’ve added the climate to it, it all comes together.” 

Another Raging Granny mentioned air pollution as a major factor to climate change. She said “the pollution put out by the military flying their planes and running their bases, doing their test bombings, are one of the worst things for our planet.” 

They state “It’s embarrassing, congress and the government don’t believe anything. Scientists have had concrete research for years. Nobody has spoken up. It’s a mockery of judgement and science and decision making.” 

As climate change is constantly increasing and becoming more prevalent, here are some ways you can help from home: 

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  Reduce your carbon footprint 

• Replace your light bulbs with LED 
• Always wash with cold water 
• Try to hang dry your clothes instead of using the dryer 
• Use an energy efficient shower head 
• Watch your diet 
• Try to eat plant based food more often 
• Reduce your meat intake 
• Recycle your clothes 
• Reuse old shirts for rags 
• Unplug electronic devices when they aren’t being used 
• Plant a garden
• Stay away from plastic water bottles
• Buy a reusable water bottle and fill it from the tap 
• Carpool 
• Wash your car in a self serve car wash
• When you wash your car at home, the polluted water runs into sewers 
• Bring your own shopping bags 
• Spread the word
• Talk to your peers about climate change and educate them 

Climate change is not an opinion, it is a scientific fact and we need to act now. As Barack Obama said “Climate change is no longer some far-off problem; it is happening here, and it is happening now.”