Hundreds of Ohio residents, including a large group from Antioch College, will get on buses, trains and take carpools to New York City this weekend for the People’s Climate March on Sunday, September 21.
The People’s Climate March is being billed as the first of its kind and the largest climate march ever; it’s a protest against global climate change just as the United Nations convenes a climate summit.
“There are so many people in the United States that are tired of nothing being done about climate change, and they want to show that now is the time for climate action from the United States and also from the world,” says Samantha Allen with the Ohio Sierra Club. She says hundreds will head out from Columbus and the Cleveland area.
Several dozen Antioch College students are taking an overnight bus departing Saturday. Student organizer Lauren Gjessing thinks a big part of the march’s impact will be the energy they bring back.
“I think a lot of this work will actually be done after,” she says, as students ask “what can we do as a community moving forward?”
Antioch is working to become less dependent on fossil fuels by installing a solar array, which, despite causing some local controversy, broke ground just weeks ago.
The march overall has a broad platform; it will include LGBT, indigenous groups, civil rights and peace groups, making connections between climate and social and economic justice around the world.
WYSO public radio is licensed to Antioch College. Lewis Wallace is WYSO's managing editor, substitute host and economics reporter. Follow him @lewispants.
