THUNDER BAY — FridaysForFuture is an international youth-led and organized movement that began in 2018.
About 40 students from Superior CVI that are apart of FridaysForFuture, skipped out on school and walked to the local MP’s office for a protest on Friday.
“We came today because FridayForFuture, the worldwide organization, is striking today until Sunday,” said Sibley, a Grade 12 student at Superior CVI.
“It's not just other people who are adults . . . high school students can care too. Especially right now during the election, we want to know that the MP for Thunder Bay - Superior North is actually fighting for what we want as well, and we hope that the MP . . . takes this to the House of Commons, makes sure that it's something that the Canadian government is aware of,” she said.
The city of Thunder Bay can collectively have an impact on climate change, Sibley said.
“When people think about climate change, they think about other bigger cities like Hong Kong where the air pollution is terrible. But you know, us in Thunder Bay, we can do stuff too. We have pollution coming from our city as well.”
FridaysForFuture is an organization founded by Greta Thunberg, Sibley said.
“Many people may know that name. She was very (politically) active when she was a teenager.
“There is the worldwide organization, but then there's mini organizations that have popped up all around the world. There are many other strikes happening for FridaysForFuture right now in Winnipeg, Vancouver, Hamilton, Sudbury, just to name a few that are happening in Canada right now,” she said.
Sibley said she just wants to get it across to residents of Thunder Bay that climate change is happening.
“It's a big thing. I know some people may not think that they have any say in what happens to it or they're contributing massively to it, but you know, climate change is going to get worse if we don't do anything. That means the temperatures are going to get hotter, the lakes are going to get worse.”
Kate Haering, Grade 12 student at Superior CVI, said a lot of students are focusing on water conservation.
“We just had an event at our school where we educated on water conservation and really brought light to it. A lot of people think that water conservation doesn't affect us here in Thunder Bay, we're on the biggest great lake, we have a lot of fresh water. In recent years there have been a lot of blue-green algae blooms and different things happening in our freshwater bodies due to climate change that will affect everyone,” she said.
Haering said the group is not against the government.
“We're just here to be heard.
“We want to work with the government. We want our message brought higher up because it is incredibly important for all of us.”
Haering said with the upcoming election, voting is more important than ever.
“Voting in this election is incredibly important to implement the climate change policies that you want to see,” she said.
