Students across the world, including those from Northwood, held climate strikes to call attention to the severity of climate change and demand change from political leaders, on Sept. 20.

Northwood students participated because they sought to raise awareness and emphasize the importance of protecting the environment.

“I wanted to join the climate strike because I need our world to wake up to the harm that we are causing to the life on our planet,” participant senior Abby Foster said. “Hundreds of thousands of people are already dying every year due to climate change related reasons, and this is only accelerating.”

One climate change strike attended by Northwood students took place near Tustin Centennial Park at the Edinger and Redhill intersection.

“At first, everyone was at one corner, but then people started crossing the streets and moving around the four corners to get more people’s attention,” senior Paige Press said. “It was really exciting because a lot of cars honked or gave us a thumbs up to show us support, and then we would all cheer in response.”

Another climate change strike was organized by Irvine Valley College (IVC) and the Irvine Climate Resilience and took place at the intersection of Culver and Alton. An estimated 250 people participated in the protest, which lasted for about two hours.

“When I saw the strike information on IVC’s Green Team’s Instagram, I asked if I could rally some Northwood kids to join them,” Foster said. “I posted on my social media quite a few times during the weeks leading up to the strike and talked to some friends.”

These strikes were inspired by climate activist Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old from Sweden who grew famous for her protests outside the Swedish Parliament in 2018 for better policies on climate change. She helped incite these global climate strikes by encouraging students and young adults to take action and call on governments to do more to alleviate and staunch its effects.

Caused by emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane, climate change has caused a two-degree-Fahrenheit increase in global temperatures, which has led to more severe natural disasters, like worsening droughts and hurricanes.

Aside from strikes, Northwood students can get involved in voicing their opinions to protect the environment by reaching out to district representatives or joining Environmental Club, which meets in Room 1003 during Wednesday lunches.

“I think a lot of times we forget about the importance of saving the environment because there are so many urgent matters to attend to,” Press said. “But the long-term effects of climate change are going to be devastating if we don’t start doing something to combat it.”