Students join coalition to combat climate crisis
Activists plan to walk out of Austin schools and businesses on Friday to rally for an end to global warming
THE GROUP GATHERS: Students of all ages skipped school on March 15 claiming the chance to teach others about climate change was a more pressing educational issue than attending their classes. Photo by Stella Shenkman.
September 16, 2019
Shield podcast producer Stella Shenkman sits down with junior Aryana Miller-Fortman and sophomore Lucy Marco, the McCallum representatives for the Austin Climate Coalition, a group of Austin youth, small businesses, faith communities and creatives banded together to demand more action against the world’s climate crisis.
The coalition is organizing a walk out and Texas Capitol rally on Friday. Students are a part of the walk out but so are adults who will be striking by leaving their jobs on Friday to join the protest and rally.
Global warming is real. It’s our future; it’s our kids’ futures, and we’re just trying to get a better future for ourselves.
— sophomore Lucy Marco
Both have moms who are committed to political activism and environmental awareness and reform, and both said they feel this is a cause in which they strongly believe.
“It is scary organizing for a huge walkout for the first time,” Miller-Fortman said of her involvement in the Texas Capitol Walkout April 20, 2018, as a freshman. “It is unbelievably scary and stressful. Doing that my freshman year, I don’t know how I did it. The amazingness that comes of it, the awareness, the change that you are causing … it is all worth it.”
Miller-Fortman was also quick to assert that the walkout is well-organized, safe and serious. While there are many adults who are participating in the planning and protest to come, Miller-Fortman and Marco had a message for the many adults who deny that a climate crisis exists.
“If you keep up with news in other places and see how much the sea is rising and how it’s affecting [places] like Bangladesh [you learn beyond a doubt that] global warming is real,” Marco said. “It’s our future; it’s our kids’ futures, and we’re just trying to get a better future for ourselves.”
“Wake up,” Miller-Fortman added. “It’s happening. It’s now. It’s almost 2020. Do your research. … This is our world now. Our seas are rising. Animals are going extinct. Plants, everything, they are leaving our earth.”
“I feel really guilty personally,” Marco continued. “We share this earth with so many animals, so many species of plants, and we’re ruining it for them as well. I feel responsible for that … just being a human.”
If you want to participate, Miller-Fortman and Marco said, the walkout will take place at 9 a.m., and the capitol rally will start at noon. The cleanup afterword will start at 4 p.m. at the south capitol steps. For more information, visit austinclimatecoalition.org.
![With the AISD rank and GPA discrepancies, some students had significant changes to their stats. College and career counselor Camille Nix worked with students to appeal their college decisions if they got rejected from schools depending on their previous stats before getting updated. Students worked with Nix to update schools on their new stats in order to fully get their appropriate decisions. “Those who already were accepted [won’t be affected], but it could factor in if a student appeals their initial decision,” Principal Andy Baxa said.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/53674616658_18d367e00f_o-600x338.jpg)
Olivia Escalante • Oct 8, 2019 at 9:33 pm
Overall I think that this was really good. You did a really good job of putting information about current events. I don’t think I would have done any of it differently.
Zoe Tanner • Oct 8, 2019 at 10:52 am
This piece is very inspiring and eye opening, it shows how students can really make a difference and take charge of the future by acting now. I thought the writing did a great job of showing how Lucy Marco and Aryana Miller-Fortman feel and how passionate they are about the issue without the writer showing a bias.
Lily Prather • Oct 7, 2019 at 5:19 pm
I already really like this subject because I completely agree that climate change is real and I was happy to see this story because it gives me hope that people will see it and help make a change. Besides the subject I though it was well written by highlighting the tone and the emotion plus real feeling of fear and care, that you can see from the two girls.
Addison Phillips • Oct 6, 2019 at 3:24 pm
I really liked how this article showed emotion through quotes, while still staying informative and non-biased.