An Open Letter Endorsing the Global School Strike for Climate

More than 240 scientists have already signed a document supporting students around the world in their demand for bold action to make sure the world they grow up in is livable. What follows is the text of an open letter by the climate scientists Peter Kalmus, Kate Marvel, Michael Mann, Katharine Hayhoe and Kim Cobb, declaring their support of a worldwide student strike, scheduled for March 15, which calls on the word’s leaders to take serious action against climate change—a problem these leaders have been warned about literally for decades:

Today’s elementary and high school students have lived their short lives on a planet measurably different than any other generation in the history of human civilization. Every year of their lives has been one of the warmest 20 years since records began, and they’ve also witnessed increasingly frequent, disruptive, and costly extreme weather events.

They recognize the battle for their future. Without aggressive action to reduce humanity’s carbon emissions, these students can expect to bear witness to a world we can’t fully imagine yet: one where irreversible changes to our water and food systems, our infrastructure and our economy, shape a planet and a society very different from what we see today, a world characterized by greater insecurity, uncertainty, and inequity that directly threatens their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property.

Read the full letter here.