By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
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| A growing movement of young activists is pushing action on climate change and gun safety. (Sunrise Movement) |
Energized by popular political
newcomers such as Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, students from the environmental
activist group Sunrise Movement recently staged a sit-in
outside the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The protesters want quick progress on the “Green New Deal” and an end to political contributions from fossil-fuel companies.
The protesters want quick progress on the “Green New Deal” and an end to political contributions from fossil-fuel companies.
What is the Green New Deal? Like the original New Deal that led the
country out of the Great Depression, the green successor is a government-led,
nationwide, job-creating economic transformation of the energy system to
address climate change.
The job-works programs are intended to produce
equitable incomes, improve the economy, and address climate change.
Supporters want Pelsoi to form a House committee to come up with a specific plan for the Green New Deal and put it into action. And if she or the House leadership don’t deliver, the activism will continue.
“This is not the end,” said Lauren
Maunus of Sunrise RI. “If you are not going to step up, we are going to
mobilize other leaders and run for office.”
Maunus was one of the 200 Sunrise
activists from across the country to join the Nov. 13 sit-in and one of 51 to
get arrested. The two-hour protest was the culmination of a six-month “Sunrise
Semester” that included canvasing for progressive candidates around the country
and training for protests.
Emma Bouton of Sunrise RI was also
arrested at the Pelosi protest. She and the other arrestees were detained for a
few hours and released after paying a $50 fine.
Like Maunus, Bouton is a student a
Brown University. Six Brown University students attended the Sunrise training
and events in Washington, D.C.
Sunrise is less than two years old, but the
group has grown quickly by embracing the anxiety and immediacy young people
feel about issues such as climate change and gun safety.
The urgency was only
stoked by the recent U.N. report that concluded carbon emissions
must be slashed by 2030.
These activists say they helped win
the House of Representatives for the Democratic party and they want political
change to begin right away.
“We can’t rest on our laurels now,”
Bouton said. The movement, she added, must support leaders who will act to
prevent radical climate change and deliver the action “that is needed to enact
the kind of change we are expecting.”
Sunrise RI has about 25 core members
from Brown University, the Rhode Island School of Design, and local high
schools who will be pressing political leaders for change.
They’ve been showing
up at Gov. Gina Raimondo’s office and at her public events, urging her to
refuse taking campaign contributions from fossil-fuel companies.
This Monday, Nov. 19, Sunrise RI is
protesting Brown alumnus and Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez
during a campus event. Perez is being targeted for reversing a party resolution
to stop accepting contributions from fossil-fuel industry.
The group is also expected to meet soon with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., to encourage him to sign a similar pledge disavowing money from fossil-fuel companies.
The group is also expected to meet soon with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., to encourage him to sign a similar pledge disavowing money from fossil-fuel companies.
The group expects to press
Congressmen David Cicilline, D-R.I., and Jim Langevin, D-R.I., to adopt the
pledge. Sunrise groups around the country plan to encourage their members of
Congress to make similar promises, all in hopes of making the Green New Deal a
core of the Democratic platform in the 2020 election.
In January, Sunrise RI and other
local environmental groups are expected to push state legislators to pass local
Green New Deal initiatives that deliver sweeping, emission reductions to
transportation, housing, and the power sector.
And don’t expect these activists to
be put off by delays and study commissions.
“If you are not going to step up, we
are going to show you how committed we are to protecting our generation,”
Maunus said.