What the global student climate strike looked like in Austin, Texas.

Hundreds of protesters gathered at the steps of the Capitol on Sept. 20 2019 to encourage Texas legislators to act on climate change. The Austin Climate Strike was one of 2,500 events scheduled worldwide, according to 350.org, an international environmental advocacy group. 

The Climate Strike was organized by Emma Galbraith and Matthew Kim, two Austin-area high school students. Galbraith was the first of many speakers lined up for the rally, and said voting is one of the ways people can fight the climate crisis. 

“We’re here because our government is failing us,” Galbraith said. “We are here to act on our power as constituents. That’s how we divert from our past and how we keep (our future) facing in the right direction.”

Protesters chanted slogans toward the windows of the Capitol, including: “Stop denying the earth is dying,” “It’s time to act, don’t deny the facts” and “No more fight to stay alive.” People hit their reusable water bottles with sticks and held signs depicting the earth on fire. Alyn Hotho, a junior at Katherine Porter School, made a sign of a sea turtle with plastic in its shell, reading: “Trash doesn’t belong in turtles!” Hotho said an important issue to her was the effects of pollution on the ocean’s ecosystem.

“I saw this documentary, and it shows a whole bunch of trash inside of dead birds and turtles when they cut open their stomachs,” Hotho said. “Whales are beaching themselves because their stomachs are so full of trash. I thought that this would be a creative way to get people’s attention.”

According to National Geographic, there are 5.25 trillion tons of plastic waste in the world’s oceans. Many aim to combat that by using metal straws, or using shampoo bars with compostable packaging instead of plastic bottles. However, Galbraith said that personal changes — like going vegan or buying metal straws — aren’t always a possibility for everyone.

“We’re told that personal lifestyle changes are not just the best way to help the environment and that we’re bad environmentalists if we don’t adopt those changes,” Galbraith said. “The problem isn’t with our lifestyles, but with the institutions that have become the foundations of our lives.”

In many of the speeches, students emphasized their futures at stake because of climate change. Many protesters expressed the same feeling, including Savannah Cunningham, an eighth-grader at the Girls’ School of Austin.

“If no one’s going to stand up for the earth, we’re the ones who are going to have to live out with the fallout,” Cunningham said. “No one else cares. We have to care, we have to put the effort into that and make it important.”

Josie Frazier, an eighth-grader at the Girls’ School of Austin said she was fearful of what the future holds for herself and other young people.

“It’s not going to be possible for us to live here anymore,” Frazier said. “That’s what I am worried about. The animals that we are on the earth with, they’re not going to be able to survive because of us. And that makes me scared”

Galbraith presented seven demands for Texas to move toward renewable energy, including closing Fayette Coal Plant by 2023 and ending fossil fuel usage by 2030. On a more individual level, however, Headwaters School physics teacher Kelley Janes proposed optimism and love would be another way to fight climate change.

“There’s this picture of the environmentalist as someone who’s trying to take away your hot showers from you, right? That’s not true,” Janes said. “There are some industries that want to make it look like that. But that’s not the truth we know. We have to be fueled by love. It’s a little easier than we think.”

Janes encouraged students to continue striking every Friday, like Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has done since Aug. 2018. Hotho also said young people need to continue advocating for action against climate change.

“Keep on fighting, don’t ever give up,” Hotho said. “We need to keep standing up. The environment is not just a thing that goes around the internet, it’s not a trend. I know a lot of the older generation is stopping us, but we need to keep on fighting. We have a future.”