 Bahamas where people were devastated by Hurricane Dorian and they had nowhere to go except the U.S. which is the nearest and the Trump administration shut them out and said no we're not going to allow you to come into environmental justice needs not only investing in these frontline communities but making sure that climate refugees are taking care of and have a place to go because it is partially our fault that they're being affected in this way. Number three is the protection and restoration of biodiversity that was pretty self-explanatory. Number two we have sustainable agriculture so we know that our agricultural sector can take in as much carbon as our entire transportation sector comes puts out so we need to look at solutions that aren't just about getting to carbon neutral but we can also look at carbon negative solutions that can help us get there and then finally a Green New Deal which is that 100% transition away from fossil fuels and that zero emissions by 2030 so those are our demands and it was just incredible being there I was there in New York City like I said 250,000 people were all there uniting together for these solutions I think one thing that was really amazing about this not only is the fact that it was solidarity between all kinds of people youth people of color the working class we had I think 2,000 people strike from Google and 2,000 people from Amazon which is absolutely incredible but one thing that's even more amazing was who organized these these were young people indigenous people black and brown people um people like myself and like Asia as you see here we're literally 17 years old and we're building this global movement um we shouldn't have to but here we are and we're going to make sure that our voices are heard um and so that's what September 20th was all about um I think that people clearly took notice and we're just going to keep building the moment the movement from here on out this is just the beginning this is just the start um yeah oh thank you maybe we'll um say to folks too that the um that we have time at the end of this as well for questions so um we're also looking at the uh looking at the chat box on the side so thanks for some of the comments and um we'll make sure that we get to some questions there's a request um for each of us to just reintroduce ourselves so um maybe um I will just reintroduce myself and then when it gets to each of you if you want to do your reintroduction as well um but my name is Carleen Pickard and I work at Lush Cosmetics we're based here in Vancouver um but we're part of the global climate strikes specifically in the United States in the 20th we shut down all of our retail stores and had um about two and half thousand staff out on the streets in their local communities and then doing the same thing again here on the 27th in Canada where our 50 retail stores as well as our manufacturing staff both in Toronto and Vancouver will be out at local marches so really pleased to be here with Asha and Vancouver we'll start with you we also just your where are you in the planning for the 27th and what's it all going to look like all righty so first of all just to reintroduce myself my name is Asha New York I'm 17 years old and I am an organizer with climate strike Canada which is our national movement and also locally with sustainability which is our organization here in Vancouver British Columbia so as Feliquan mentioned a number of countries such as the U.S. had their major strike dates on September 20th we in Canada opted to do ours on the 27th but we actually decided to have a whole week of action to kind of respect both strike dates so we kicked off our week of action last Friday as well with a Diane it was a nationally coordinated Diane all at the same time at 12 p.m. yes 12 p.m. pacific time so all the major cities across Canada hosted these dians in public places and for anyone who doesn't know what a Diane is basically it's a type of protest where people drop to the ground with some kind of symbol so we had a whistle signaling everyone to drop to the ground and they stayed there for a long period of time to kind of signal what our fates look like because of the climate crisis to show that our lives are really on the line and that we will be the casualties at the end of the day so we had a massive turnout here in Vancouver far bigger than we ever anticipated and so we've been doing a series of activities throughout the week just to have this whole week of action so for example we're doing a chalk and transit action this week so to put the advertising out all over the city so that everyone knows to gear up for our major strike on the 27th now September 27th we are expecting 30,000 people here in Vancouver now considering at our last strike on May 3rd we had 3,000 that's 10 times more so we are very much looking forward to that our biggest strike to date in Canada was Montreal March 15th where we had about 150,000 people who came out so we managed to mobilize all the student unions at the major universities in Montreal and that's how we got those massive numbers and we've really just been building on what we learned about that so we've been engaging businesses such as Lush and a number of businesses will be walking out with us because part of the messaging for this strike too is that it's not just a school strike we are making this into a general strike for climate it is an intergenerational effort to show that everyone is being called upon to help solve this issue of the climate crisis that it shouldn't be just left to the students because like fellow quans said this shouldn't be our job we're just teenagers we should be in school we should be hanging out with our friends but instead we're dedicating hours and hours every day to organizing so for march for uh september 27th rather we are calling upon all generations whether you're still in elementary school or if you're a senior and you already have grandchildren we're asking everyone to come out and join this movement on the 27th and we're hoping to shatter some records here in Vancouver and in Canada yeah the um so in in the words are in the middle of this week of action too wanted to um ask both Asha and fellow quan i think you've done a little bit of it asha but sharing a little bit of the learnings um and tanu as well i think being in the back end of um of the work that you all have been doing too just um you know in a way to so in a way so that we here in Vancouver are totally we're in Canada are totally prepared um but also as we look forward to continuing to build this work together what are some of the learnings that we already know that have come out so maybe fellow quantified start with you yeah so should i talk from like an organizing perspective or just like in general i mean i think there's certainly for for us at lush and the way that we've been engaging our customers in the store both like building people um building people's knowledge to know what was going to happen either on the 20th or the 27th but just also engaging in the conversation around the climate crisis there is still a lot of wonder that folks have about how to get engaged and so i think hearing from an organizer's perspective on um what's been really successful and maybe um some things that will continue to build on would be great yeah okay so i think one thing that was important that i touched a bit upon that i learned um so much about was the importance of solidarity how much stronger these strikes are when we work with different groups different organizations when we work with labor unions um etc etc to come out together like like asia just uh mentioned she got all the student unions to walk out and that made the strike even more powerful we need to be doing so much more of that solidarity work that movement building work um side by side because we are all in this fight together we're not going to just be able to do that alone it's it's impossible you know i always said that the fossil industry um they're united they're united in their money they have the same message and they have tons of money to go ahead and spend and get out on all that types of messaging so if these organizations and if these people powered uh the people powered movement is not united we're not going to win so the importance of solidarity is the first big one um secondary to that is kind of the team building aspect of that and the importance um this is more a personal part but not trying to put the entire load on yourself um this is stressful i i don't know how many times i have to say but we should not have to do this we're 17 years old i should be applying for college i should be i don't know playing basketball any of the above whatever it may be um none of the things that i should be doing right now should be trying to solve a global crisis um so you need to have people who are with you friends maybe in the movement not only friends but colleagues people who work in maybe the same realm as you who understand what you're doing what you're going through to be able to give you that support both in terms of work support but in terms of also mental support in terms of having just you know a friend someone who's who you know and you can just talk to about these types of things so i guess those are the two biggest things that um i can touch upon if there's anything else that i i think of i'll definitely go ahead and like chime in later but um gonna go ahead and pass the mic to y'all yeah so i'd just like to first of all echo what fellow con was saying about engaging different community groups so whether it be unions businesses that's definitely where we've seen a lot of success so whether it be um workers unions or student unions getting these representatives to speak on behalf of these groups that oftentimes people do want to come out and strike with us but they feel like they can because they're afraid of missing work or missing school assignments so part of our messaging and what we found has been really successful is kind of disrupting that business as usual mindset and saying well no actually go ahead and skip that test and or strike from school strike from work that day because we can't move forward until we address this issue which was part of the messaging that we had for our september 20th dayan and one of the reasons why we had it all at the same time nationwide was because we wanted to really show that we can't move forward until we address this issue so part of what we've been doing is working to somewhat normalize it to some extent that climate striking is what we should be doing it's not too radical rather it's just radical enough that's what we need to do to get people to wake up so when we start marketing it like that that's when people really start coming and getting more engaged i'd also like to echo what feliquin said about wellness because that's something we've definitely seen on our team because climate striking and organizing is very very stressful it is a lot of work and it really has an emotional toll i know that's one thing we really felt in canada when we found out that the tmx pipeline that's the trans mount pipeline expansion was approved and that was really something that we struggled with a lot as a group because it really felt like this the it really felt like it was a real blow to us that everything we'd been saying so far wasn't being listened to so having our group we have a wellness call every wednesday in our organizing group just to really talk about what we're feeling and how we can move forward and grow as activists from what we're feeling um those are some of the major thoughts that came to my mind but definitely engaging student groups yeah uh we've also found that a lot of local school districts have been voting to support the climate strikes which has been really great because it means that finally we're not having teachers who are scheduling tests on those days and therefore students aren't able to leave but we're seeing more cooperation between teachers and students and it again it feels like really more of a unified movement that's part of the reason why we had an intergenerational strike because we recognize as much as the students want action we're not alone and we all need to work together if we want to see real change be achieved yeah that's most of the things that come to my mind anu yeah um thank you so be amazing to hear your learnings out of it yeah i just really want to appreciate what um asha and feli kwan said um i'm really echoing that like this movement it's really going to take all of us and all sectors and there is a role for all of us um i'd also say a major learnings for me in this experience is the power of building a multi-generational and multi-racial movement for climate justice as an adult ensuring that we're supporting young people checking our egos and recognizing that the kind of movement we want to build is one where we're learning from each other to force the hand of those in power to demand our human right to adjust an equitable world one where we can breathe clean air drink clean water um and live where we want to live without fear of climate impacts i also want to say that the reality of the climate crisis is that not everyone is impacted equally so recognizing that those on the front lines of the crisis were hit the hardest by stronger hurricanes wildfires floods droughts are often poor working class from black brown indigenous and migrant communities and are from the global south so places like the pacific islands bongavish bahamas to name a few places and in our work and in our work to demand climate action we have to center those who are most impacted i'm wondering um because i know you know you and 350 have been doing this work for so long if there's um just some reflections as well about you know what was different in this and and what it was like being an organizer to not just sort of go through the same do the same things we were sort of always trying to learn but to not do the same things and if there were things that were fundamentally that different this time in preparing for the strikes tanya if you have any thoughts on that on what was fundamentally different this time in preparing for the strikes yeah i mean yeah i think that this time around you know it really was a multi-generational effort where young people were leading and we were supporting and following and i think 350.org took that really seriously to support young people um and you know the the demands that feliquan spoke of in the u.s those were youth created um and it's really incredible to see young people really taking um you know a stand against the fossil fuel industry um and really telling it like it is i think that that's what's really incredible about what's been able to happen over the last um year but even within the last couple of months of us like collectively organizing these strikes is that young people have shifted the zeitgeist they have literally um you know change the conversation around climate so that we're not just talking about um you know like weak climate action or you know false solutions to climate but are really calling out the industries who have caused emissions um and who needs to be held accountable and who needs to pay for the kinds of climate action we need yeah feliquan i was gonna um ask you a question around those demands i know that the um that that there had been a ton of different conversations that happened over the period before the demands have come out and just wondered if you wanted to share or if there's anything to share around there about how that process came together in the end yeah so um like she said those demands were entirely created by youth we literally met in the camp in boon iowa of all places and it was organized from from every state i believe and from all eight different organizations that are part of that coalition so it was really incredible to be able to meet these people that i mean i'd only talk to over slack or zoom calls or whatever um or seen on social media all in one place at once so it was definitely an incredible and such an inspiring experience um but yeah it literally started with a five-hour um little meeting in the middle of like um what do you call that like i guess a lawn or like a field um in the middle of the field um a circle of chairs and people just talked for five hours and those frontline youth and uh from all different types of frontline communities black brown indigenous uh people from the Caribbean like myself people from the global south etc etc um that were bringing forth these demands which is part of the reason like the new set that you see that these these demands i actually have depth to them for a long time we've been talking about these kind of uh nibbling around the edges i guess you could say incrementalist solutions to the climate crisis that really won't solve the crisis in the long run and not only will they not solve the crisis but they don't even address the inequalities that we already created because of the falsely industries um in the long run you know from like i said earlier with environmental racism with pollution instead of communities like mine with climate refugees the seven million already this year there's already seven million climate refugees they don't address these so once you bring all these types of people together from different communities and especially youth who are going to have to live their entire lives of this crisis that's when you see uh solutions to this depth um so there was actually some backlash originally um from these demands because of they people thought they were too political they had the name green new deal over it um we called it the era of the green new deal um so eventually we had to break down into smaller groups and we had the larger frontline demands that the entire coalition used but uh some of the organizations in the smaller group are still going with the era of the green new deal messaging we do not want to be generation z because we don't want to be the last generation we want to be generation g and d generation green new deal um so some of us are using that messaging and my group is included in that because um will we like it um but um yeah that's kind of how the demands came to fruition and i'm so incredibly proud of the work we've done uh getting these demands and getting them out and not only that but you know the subset demands as well and the generation green new deal like alexandra ocazo-cortez has made um another video about generation green new deal because even people who've brought these these conversations to the front are being inspired by the youth so that's just incredible and the conversation around green new deal is certainly something that's alive here in canada um we were gonna talk a little bit in a bit about kind of what's next but just seeing asha kind of agreeing with a lot of the demands wondering if there's similar process here or how climate straight canada is planning on messaging demands for the friday right yeah so we do have a list of demands on our website i don't know them off the top of my head but many of them are very similar to what felicone was talking about in the u.s so a lot about protection for frontline communities making sure that that environmental rights are enshrined as a fundamental human right because of what essentially we can't live our lives without a healthy environment so having that right made part of our constitution made part of our country so those are some of the things we're advocating for but very much similar we also do have a push for the green new deal in canada of kind of modified but to fit canada so that's not directly a climate strike canada effort but we do have an organization called our time which has been really fantastic and they've been working to promote a green new deal in canada so we do have a push it's very very similar uh we did we recently re-evaluated our demands so i'm not sure how we're going to be talking about them at the strike because they're still in the process of being fine-tuned i mean as felicone was saying it's all youth written in canada our movement is entirely youth led we are we even hesitate to have adults in our slack because we are so adamant on being youth led and when we create these demands it's very much we go word by word making sure everything is perfect everything is truly representative and that climate justice is a the foundation of everything we do so you can find those i believe the demands are live now at climate strike canada.org so they can be found on our website and yeah so we're not quite sure i don't think at this point how we're going to be pushing for those demands but they are live online and we will be pushing for them in the lead-up to the election great right which is which is the next thing we're going to talk about um but um so we have a federal election in canada coming up in October 21st and just sort of thinking about that conversation but maybe start with you folks down south first um just in terms of what's next now that we're in a in your lives like a post-September 20th environment sort of what what's next and how do we keep building together for whoever wants to start first um felicone you want to go yeah that's fine yeah okay so um i think yeah a lot of our work is going to be electoral not only on you know the presidential scale but making sure we have a Green New Deal candidate um all the way up and down the ballot the local elections matter and of course the House of Representatives and the Senate matter so we're going to be doing a lot of work um in that realm pressuring not only existing incumbents to support the Green New Deal um through different efforts but also you know pushing new candidates and primary opponents and whatnot that are going to support these um full transformative policies um we also also are going to be continuing with the strikes i know that there is a strike date that's still being discussed um internationally but um we're going to be continuing with the strikes and with that part of the movement and we're also going to be doing a lot of advocacy work as well um get it garnering public support for different policies and making the case for the policies that we support so um that's what it looks like from our side a lot of stuff is still in development but i'm definitely really excited going to the election to do that work yeah and just to add in the u.s today is actually national voter registration day and so if you do have the privilege of being a u.s citizen please and you can vote you're a voting age please register to vote uh you can do so um at a link it's bit.ly bit.ly slash strike then vote um you know i'm for myself uh as an immigrant to the u.s i'm constantly pushing my um u.s citizens friends to vote and to vote for a candidate with the most ambitious climate action plan who is equally good on issues such as immigration and racial justice and health care and more because the climate justice movement is a movement of intersecting um justices um and then in terms of uh other things that you can do um we have uh 350.org has a uh next steps call a national call on october 3rd um it's called we are unstoppable building a movement to shut down fossil fuels you can register for that at 350.org slash next steps and beyond the suite you can plug into on the ground flights against the fossil fuel industry by texting strike that's st r i k e in all caps to 83 224 again 83 224 and i also wanted to just shout out that um this week there's a lot of actions happening across the u.s um at the local level that's really demonstrating that um you know the movement um you know is beyond just one moment it's not just september 20th but there's a whole entire week of action and so um this week from places like colorado and san francisco and seattle and new hamshire and minneapolis there are um you know uh local actions happening at fossil fuel sites that you can learn about um if you are in those areas you can learn about it at 350.org slash strike usa uh to find out more and just to give you like a little taste of what's happening this week uh just yesterday thousands of people participated in shutting down washington dc a large coalition shut down the city to stop business as usual um you know to call out the workings of power and to call for an end to coal oil and gas and the influence of the fossil industry and politics um and for the rest of the week uh there's actions like uh protesting the line three pipeline in minnesota to calling out the suncore oil refinery in colorado and rallying against companies that are backing ice immigration customs enforcement as well as investing in fossil fuels um and so we really encourage people to get to know about those actions that are happening in cities like seattle and san francisco there are indigenous led actions um that are following the strike so seattle activists will be are leading a four-day walk from the takoma lmg to the state capital in olympia to call the state to restore the salish sea in san francisco activists are shutting down the financial district on september 25th that's tomorrow and to demand financial divestment from fossil fuels uh in an indigenous led action led by idle no more and then in new england um in new hampshire activists will be shutting down the last major coal fired power plant um and there's also ongoing actions in minnesota so we really encourage people to get to know about those actions again 350 dot org slash strike usa and then lastly i would say that um we really want folks to pay attention to the fight against the keystone excel pipeline um this is a top priority for the trump administration they really want to push forward this pipeline ahead of the 2020 election and we know that our movement is made stronger when we work in solidarity and follow the leadership of those directly impacted by the climate crisis so we've teamed up with indigenous leaders and farmers and ranchers along the kxl route um for the promise to protect um which is a commitment to participate in creative resistance along the route is invited uh so you can join um the promise to protect at no kxl promise dot org i know that was a lot of information but that's a a lot of the kinds of actions that you can get involved in as well as continuing to support young people who will continue to strike thank you thanks and yeah we've been getting the URLs up in the chat box so um if folks also still have questions about things that that tany said that that we've missed in there please go ahead and drop that in there and we'll add it in so maybe to to bring the next steps conversation up to up to canada um our federal election on the 21st of october and asha mentioned um our time and the the work that our time is doing here maybe um maybe just just taking it from you know what's it going to look like on the 28th and you know we'll be sort of three and a half weeks away from our federal election at that point the keystone xl pipeline obviously something super important for us here um but also the trans mountain pipeline being a pipeline that we've been fighting um also fossil fuel extraction out of northern alberta all pretty important things to us and the place that we care about yeah so come september 28th first thing we're going to do is we're going to sleep in because we've been working very very hard for this strike and then we have to start mobilizing for the federal election in canada so we haven't really had a lot of time to work on it because we've been concentrating all of our energies towards the week of action and in particular september 27th but we're in the process of developing a comprehensive election plan because we recognize that in canada our youth demographic makes up a quarter of the vote so we have the ability to influence massive change and so we need to make sure that people in our demographic are getting out there are getting educated and are registering to vote so first of all let's talk about the first part of that and getting educated so there are a couple of really amazing organizations in canada that we are we've been collaborating with and that are working to make sure people get organized one of which that we've been working very closely with is shake up the establishment and they're a youth led grassroots organization that has been creating basically these comprehensive outlines of what all of the candidates have to offer when it comes to climate and they've been posting all of these details on their website kind of like a cheat sheet for the election because it can be very hard to follow politicians and their rhetoric and what they're actually going to follow through on so this organization has really been breaking it down into language that is understandable for younger demographics and not just political jargon so that we can become more educated and make informed choices when it comes to the election uh another organization that actually one of our organizers Peyton Mitchell is an organizer with um future majority and they're an organization that has been going to universities and classrooms and encouraging people to actually go and register and vote because that is an issue that we have seen historically in canada voter apathy particularly when it comes to younger citizens but we've been really working to change that rather having youth go out there and encourage other people to go and vote and that's something we've seen growing and growing over the last few months that we are the ones who are really leading the the church to vote even if we can't vote yet like i'll be 17 come the election i won't be able to vote unfortunately but i know that's all i talk about with most people who are over 18 that they need to go out and vote because we're counting on them we only have so many venues in which we can advocate for legislative change but we can't fully use our democrat our democratic powers until we become 18 so for everyone who is on this call today who is over 18 and who is in canada we are really asking you to go and use that power become educated and vote when it comes to the canadian federal election because you're voting for the rest of us you don't have a chance to defend our future in that way so yeah we haven't and then there will be more details available online on social media and on climate strike canada.org when we have our full plan set out for the election but those are some things to get started um thank you thank you all of you i'm having there's some questions that are popping up in the chat box um which we can move into attempt to address some of them but i think you know one of the um one of the main things that's coming up and was certainly what we were interested about putting this call together and having the conversation is is around how we take all the energy that's been created and push that into voting power um so think some some of the questions that were around you know what should we do next or what how what of the strikes help build think if any if feliquin or or i think asha sort of just did it but talking to address about what we need to do is then be converting folks that can vote to be voting for climate leaders feliquin i don't know if you have anything to add on to that or you're if you're seeing any of these questions any of them particularly speak to you in the box yeah um so i mean i agree we need to um cover every all the voting power as possible someone just mentioned a very important question they said um could we talk about breaking down the myth that voting is the most powerful way to use our democratic power um you can only vote once every few years but you can organize and agitate the way everyone is on here 365 days a year so that's way more powerful so i'm just going to go for my opinion and i i agree to an extent that organizing sometimes um is the most powerful way we can make change um i can't vote and obviously if you can vote you need to vote please vote i beg you to um and that is so important but organizing is an extremely powerful way also to influence elections um for example we had a huge initiative here we started an initiative um with my organization to call for a climate debate so a climate-centered debate for all the presidential candidates um to come down and speak about climate issues obviously all the this is for a democratic debate so all the democratic candidates they believe in climate change it's not a debate on whether or not climate change exists it's a debate on how are we going to address this and so this was organizing power 100 percent there's almost nobody in our organization who can vote um so this is our way of making change and although we were not successful in getting the um debate itself what we did get was a seven-hour town hall uh with the top 10 candidates um on one of our biggest media stations in the us which is cnn um talking about climate crisis literally there's just the fact that in big words you see climate crisis and tv's all over the us was a huge shift from what we had in past elections in 2016 there was five minutes and a couple seconds of discussion over all what there was over 10 over 12 uh primary election debates i believe and uh tons of general election debates throughout all of those only five minutes of discussion and throughout organizing power we were able to completely change the dialogue completely change the situation here in the us so i think that one important thing is not only converting this energy um into voting power which is incredibly important one of the most important things we can do but also organizer and organizing power um so that was a great question i think that organizing is a very incredible and important part of this conversation that we need to be having i wonder for the question um from either of your experiences is you know just what's a good way to get the school gig to get a school climate strike started and maybe to your experiences or other folks that you've talked to about what was it like to take that first action in skip class i think that the comment in the box is most students are scared that they'll get in trouble for a skipping class somebody had to do it yeah so um on that topic we have a really great role model when it comes to gretta thunberg that she started this movement so we do have we have a real inspiration that way and i think that's how it really it spread worldwide because people saw that example and realized that climate crisis is way more urgent than we were ever taught and that's part of the issue too why people fear getting in trouble and skipping class missing tests because the knowledge that we the information that we receive about the climate crisis in school is not really that it's a climate crisis at all we just hear about climate change we don't really hear any of the immediacy or the urgency and how important it is that we act we act boldly to reduce emissions and to stop this crisis before it's too late so first of all changing that narrative that we do have time to grow up and then solve this as adults and that it's okay we can just stay in school and expect the adults to fix it for us so the first step is changing that narrative which i think is what gretta thunberg has really done teaching us that we don't have time to wait that it's time to mobilize now now in terms of teachers getting mad and skipping class and all that it definitely is an issue and it was certainly an issue when we got started i know i was very fortunate personally my principal wasn't necessarily against the climate strikes i wasn't really allowed to promote it too much but i wasn't going to get in trouble for skipping school to go but i know that my experience is an indicative of many other people's experiences and a lot of people did get in trouble and face repercussions from their school because they were missing class but we see that the narrative is changing somewhat because we are making this into an intergenerational effort again we are getting teachers involved we are getting um teachers unions actually very recently just last night i believe it was in vancouver the vancouver school board voted to support the climate strikes so it is becoming a little bit more normalized and it is becoming it's becoming less difficult for people to skip school to attend the strike so i guess the best answer to that question would be it's to follow in the example of other climate strikers and to know that it is getting easier with every passing day but you have to make that first step it does seem difficult to at first to yeah to go against the grain to some extent especially if people in your community aren't mobilizing yet but know that you have a global community of strikers who know all about those experiences and are willing to support you so in canada that's why we have the overarching network of climate strike canada because we're connecting both the major cities like vancouver and toronto and montreal but we're also connecting with those smaller communities that don't necessarily have role models and don't know what to do to get started so they're definitely people you can reach out to reach out to your local organizing groups or your national organizing group and we'll help you get started we know how to do we're learning more and more about activism every day and we can help you take that first step but it's definitely worth it yeah and to touch on that a little bit um we also can't underestimate how important our people power is so that i mean that in two ways first of all if there's tons of people striking for example from a singular school there's a very small chance that school's going to take disciplinary action over all of these students say if you have a couple hundred students from a school of like a thousand people the school is not going to want to take disciplinary action against all those students because that's just really not good for the school in the long run but on top of that using our organizing power to literally get school excused so we did that in the us um it wasn't an idea that this is an idea that sadly came up uh later and very close to the climate strike i think probably like three or four days before um september 20th but um they had the idea to like what if we just got the schools to literally give an excuse absence on september 20th and um this happened in new york city allowing millions more like millions more people to have the opportunity to strike and definitely contributed to the such a large turnout that we had um on september 20th that happened in minnesota as well and um i believe a few other places but if we had that idea way before we would have been working um long before to make sure that you know schools all over the u.s. got excuse absences so that's something that we can look towards um for the next strike trying to see if we can use our organizing power to get these school boards to give an excuse absence for people um on those Friday strikes cool thanks i knew there's a if you're have some comments too but i'm seeing there's a bunch of questions around divestment and targeting financial banks and stuff just wondering if you wanted to talk to a 350's worker on that yeah sure i see this question from um bill mckibbin wrote an article last week in the new yorker that suggested that targeting that targeting financial companies have an enormous influence all over the world could be a more rapid way of effecting change them the political process and something you have any thoughts about um so you know again i think that there's multiple tactics and um that particular article speaks to words one tactic uh financial calling for divestment is a call for trillions of dollars to be taken out of the fossil fuel industry and when we target whether it's museums whether it's financial institutions to really allocate their money um that really helps to signal um a larger movement for change and that in and of itself can actually impact the political process so i would say that uh the targeting and financial institutions is extremely important um i did see that there was a question around um how do we pressure banks insurance companies asset managers to divest from investment in fossil fuel companies there's tons of different actions that can be taken actually some of the actions happening this week in places like temsisco seattle um boston are actually also going to be um you know finance actions uh this week the un climate action summit is happening and there were finance actions here as well um i would say get involved in your local community targeting banks is effective it is actually a way of also shaming institutions um and calling you know calling for accountability from corporations um you know when when people are are demanding that their money be invested differently um that can really help to also shift narratives and so it's we're in a really incredible time where um you know we're in a where the mainstream narrative is really around um stopping the the need to stop the fossil fuel industry the needs to phase off of fossil fuels to 100% renewables and so all of these tactics are pretty critical i was um i was going to add talking about um contra and to the age of fossil fuels in that the work that we did at lush in the build-up um to september 20th was working to convene businesses and you know just because we're lush and we're a business um we're working to convene other businesses and definitely recruit participation but had um had companies sign on to a letter that directly did call um for the end of the age of fossil fuel extraction and i was thinking about that the other day that's something that's not new to lush we've done that um in terms of our campaigns around the tar sands and and against pipelines um for a number of years but for a lot of companies i think it was the first time that they were making such a call and i think to what all three of you have also been saying just that this is a new era and there's a new time but the willingness um for you know what can be seen as a more conservative bunch of businesses um but for for to be in a period where folks are actually calling for that um and joining the voices that have been doing that really important work for so long i think is i'm i'm hopeful about that so i had a couple of more minutes here if anyone else had questions or wanted to make comments in the box there um but then i guess would also just encourage you know you all in terms of we've had some things about the here's the next things that you can do um but if there's anything else what what the call at this point is um for folks to continue to be engaged um but any of any of your kind of remarks that that help us close today um i mean i guess what we wait for any more questions to come in i'll take this opportunity to talk about if anyone noticed i'm wearing a green circle pin right here so the green circle is a symbol of solidarity it originated back in montreal several months ago and has now become a symbol of solidarity with the youth climate movement but the nice thing about this symbol is that you don't have to be a young person to wear it anyone can wear this at any time to pledge your support for everything that we've been doing and to show that you realize again that it's not business as usual that we do that we are in the midst of a crisis and we need to act accordingly and that you're showing your support for climate strikers in canada and around the world so all we all you need to do to make one of these is it's just green felt so you can take green felt cut it out into a circle and put a pin in it it doesn't necessarily have to be felt i know some people prefer to use t-shirts one thing that we found actually quite interestingly one of our organizers in vancouver found a way of recycling the felt scraps so we have as little waste as possible when it comes to these circle pins and yeah if you would like to make one of those be sure to post a photo of yourself on social media using hashtag green circle or hashtag depending on whether you'd like to use the english or the french and yeah so we've been using it across canada and we'd love to see other countries take this on so fella quant if you'd like to pass that along to other us organizers we'd be very grateful yeah there's this question what can i do in my community to help encourage others to stand up for climate justice and climate rights does anyone want to take that um yeah i mean i'll go ahead and take that one so i think that a big part of it is going to be the organizing work that you're doing on the ground um and yeah just getting the word out to everyone on the ground and helping them understand you know what's going on with our world and how it would directly impact our community i think that's one of the most important and one of the best ways to kind of raise awareness really community specifically this is what our community may look like in however many years this is how these policies would help our community etc etc and i think it's really important work that needs to be done um on local levels and so i can speak on that for it from experience i live in florida um and for those of you who don't know florida is a kind of swing state but we keep going kind of the wrong way swinging the wrong way in the past couple elections and not necessarily towards people who care about um the climate crisis or towards environmental issues and not but not only that i live in one of the most conservative areas in this entire state and so we had a strike um on september 20th and on march 15th uh back in march 15th i was a state and local organizer now i'm a national organizer so i wasn't as plugged in this time but in march 15th we were able to get hundreds and hundreds of people in this incredibly rural area of florida out striking in solidarity with the people all over the world for this crisis because we were able to illustrate to them how this would matter to them and how this was important to them how this is science in fact it's not about left or right this is just the facts this is what's happening um and they understood that so once you're able to really illustrate how it's important to your community and illustrate really the facts on it it's not a political issue this is going to affect every single person on this planet um people will listen and people will mobilize i guess that's it also so thoughtful uh way for the question there too of thanksgiving coming up just sort of how to bring up the conversation at that at that table yeah so i was actually going to say the exact same thing that fell upon said that personally i believe and many of us believe that climate crisis should not be a partisan issue because it doesn't matter what side of the il you stand on everyone is going to be affected by the climate crisis in some way or another and we recognize that definitely there are people in frontline communities who will see that impact first but at the end of the day everyone is going to see that impact and we need to unite behind the science so in answer to that question how do you talk to family about the climate crisis i know that for a lot of families if there are people of differing political beliefs it can be very awkward if people if you have climate climate deniers around the table they might not be so receptive to hearing about that so really i think the best way is to frame it in terms of the science because you can't argue with facts facts cannot be political and especially when it comes to an issue like climate crisis so bringing up the science talking about the ipcc report that we only have until 2030 to get emissions below 1.5 degrees celsius talking about those facts and not talking about it in terms of a political issue i think would definitely be definitely be a really great way to talk about that and also talking about how it will affect you in your life because i know i come from a place of privilege here in vancouver not being a person of color not being part of those frontline communities but so it can be very easy to see sometimes how people don't necessarily recognize how important this issue is because they can't always see the impact in their lives so bringing the conversation back to issues around the world and how people are concretely seeing that climate crisis is impacting their lives and touching on the human aspect of things because it really is a human issue above all before it's a political issue or a scientific issue it is a human issue and i believe i'd like to believe that everyone can unite when it comes to talking about the impact on people yeah and can i just add a little bit more to that um i think something that's also really important is to not only talk about the projections so in 10 years it'll be irreversible and in however many years it's going to happen but also talk about what's already happened and what's already happening so people understand this isn't some kind of oh maybe this will happen in the future we have to act later or maybe it's happening in the future or maybe the scientists are just above a lot some agenda whatever whatever but this is literally already happening and we have the proof now it has nothing to do with just projections so for example we can talk about how these past summers i think it's the past either past four or five summers has been the hottest summers in literally global records in history we can talk about how these hurricane seasons have been literally the worst ones in history we can talk about how the ice caps and all of the world waters are rising and race faster than in history literally just you can also just talk about what's happening now and what's already happened and i think that's one of the best ways to kind of change people's mind to understand that it's not something that's just going to come in the future but we literally already have the facts of what's happening yeah i think that's such an important point and um you know like climate impacts are happening now and i think that one of the things that we can do and and this is what the global climate strikes have helped to do it is a household conversation um you know to talk about the climate crisis um you know one of the most inspiring moments i had right after the strikes i was like scrambling to you know get something out and i was in a coffee shop with such as like young people in new york like literally you know getting their coffee after the strike like talking about the fossil fuel industry i had never seen that before it was super amazing and impactful and i also want to just shout out um you know communities that i know in the pacific islands who are really about resistance and one of their um uh the pacific climate warriors of 350 pacific base they always say we are not drowning we are fighting um and so there is resistance happening now um in frontline communities to the climate crisis and so just getting to also know like what the impacts are on different communities um is also like super critical and can really help you mobilize people in your communities um and and beyond just like you know places that are you know far from where you are locally just understanding what the local impacts are and so that's why i think some of these um local actions happening in this week in places like new hampshire in minnesota in the bay area really shows that uh the climate crisis seems like this big thing and it seems like it's something that you can't see but it actually does have really local impacts it's about the air we breathe it's about the water we drink and it's about communities being able to live their lives without a pipeline going through their communities um and so there's a real connection between environmental and climate justice i am yeah i'm just paying attention to the conversation the chat's on the side so that is great and and thanks for folks that are putting resources up there um wondering if wondering if folks want to say some last words um there's definitely some questions that people have about still how to engage um engage their schools whether it's a university or high school i know um i know for us we we directed people a lot to globalclimatestrike.net and i think there's some good stuff there about how to start a strike and um some conversations to have with the administration so i'm not sure if there's some other tools that you all used but um but i know i found that that stuff pretty inspiring for folks that were asking us how to be more involved yeah so i wanted to comment on the school part of it so i want people to understand this is a movement against global establishments right and there is a very high chance that your schools are not going to support this so i'm talking about your school board or your uh school staff etc it's not going to it's not going to support this i can tell you for 100 that no matter what i told my school staff they were not going to support this this is a almost revolutionary in history and sometimes we don't need to be going to these institutions for support sometimes you're gonna have to organize under these institutions you're gonna have to build your own teams that are not going to be working with the staff and not working with the school board to raise awareness for the strike and to organize these strikes so it's it's sometimes going to be an upward battle but if you keep working on it i swear to you that it's going to be possible and that you're going to get it done um as long as you build teams within your schools and as long as you just spread awareness and go directly to the students you don't have to go to the school board go directly to your target audience um and do what we talked about localize the issue tell them about how this is something that's already happening and something that's going to only get worse from now we only have 10 years left to solve it but we have the ability to build a better future if we do once you do that you can mobilize tons of people in your school and in your community uh yeah so i'll just build on that idea a little bit about finding your community because you need to build a network of allies within your school even if your school doesn't specifically support it there will be other students who want to go out to the strikes and maybe they're nervous but by building that community within the school network then you can then people won't be so afraid when it comes to going out on the strikes and like philiquon said a lot of organizing a lot of establishments like schools won't support it and that is very much location dependent i know here in vancouver things are starting to change we have had school boards starting to vote to support the strikes but i realize that could very much be very different in florida so if you are coming to us from a location that isn't super supportive definitely figure out how to work around those rules um if you i would say it's not preferable but if you do if you're or if your administration will not support it by any chance just don't give them the reason why you're leaving school just say that you're going to a protest or going to a rally or going to an event something like that anything that will get you out of that classroom it's baby steps so at first they're not going to accept that you're going to a climate strike just find a way to be able to go and from there work on changing that mentality within your school by building the network changing the conversations talking to people about the climate crisis and normalizing it as a topic of conversation things will change and we've seen them changing here and yeah hopefully it won't be such a big issue for students to leave school rather it will be the accepted norm yeah just repeating what asia said like i was i was sick on september 20th so yeah there's a lot of methods that you can do to get past those those rules i know it's super inspiring um and i've seen a couple of people post some comments around you know having done some work for years on climate and you know but this moment in time feeling not only that you all have been so amazing at making the urgency something so front and center but also um being able to i think i think tanya said sort of like very pointedly speaking to what the what the blockages and what the problems have been around helping us get to solutions so um i know that's been something that's really inspiring for us all across the business and um looking forward to being out in the streets maybe um maybe the last thing if you all are wanting to put out like how people can find out more about what you're doing or the organization that you're attached to if you want to just give those resources out to people and then um we'll probably close the call yeah so i guess i'll go ahead and start so my organization is on twitter and instagram at us climate strike um we're website building right now so our website is not up right now it's down but if you want to learn about the actions that we've we've been doing it through the coalition website so the strike with us dot org and there's also obviously global global climate strike dot net um slash usa which is by 350 as well so you can use those but yes look at our social media we're going to be doing a lot of huge um expansions of our national state and local teams so we can really get right back into the work of organizing um hardcore organizing huge campaigns coming up so definitely check that out and um we'd love to have you as involved yeah um 350.org um at 350 org on all social media the website's to follow our strike with us and global climate strike dot net okay for us for social media for the national level we are on twitter instagram and facebook so facebook and instagram at climate strike canada and twitter at canada underscore strike if you are located in the greater vancouver area then sustainability teams would be your local organizing groups so again facebook and instagram at sustainability teams i'll put that in the chat and on twitter at sustained teams again i'll put that down and our website is climate strike canada dot org yeah i'm from folks that are um on the call from canada if you are um if you are out on this friday in canada and you have a local lush store definitely look for your lush folks um they'll be on the street and i know we would um be happy to be marching together and so a big thank you um to folks on the call and thank you all for joining us i know um it was really great to put together the joint webinar so i know there's some folks that maybe came in through lush and some folks that came in through 350 so we're um excited to be working together and welcome and and hope this is just the beginning of the conversation so thank you all for your work thank you for having us thank you