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Teens rally for climate at State Capitol

Minnesota high school students leave classrooms, converge on Capitol steps for as part of international Youth Climate Strike

ST PAUL, Minn. — Thousands of teens left school Friday to take part in marches and rallies demanding that elected leaders do more to curb climate change.

The Youth Climate Strike was inspired by 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who has led protests and given dramatic speeches in Europe for the past two years.

The largest gathering in Minnesota was at the State Capitol, where more than one thousand high school students filled the south steps, many with homemade signs expressing their fears about a warming planet.

"Our planet might not even be here in a while or our children might not be able to experience it as we have, which I think is something really important we need to focus on," Ellie Traxler-Menz of Edison High School in Minneapolis told KARE.

Students have mobilized in support of the New Green Deal, the idea of investing in stimulus programs centered on cutting the nation's carbon footprint while creating jobs in the clean energy sector.

Some of the speakers called on the lawmakers to block Enbridge Energy's planned Line 3 pipeline replacement project in northern Minnesota. Others spoke out against fossil fuels in general.

"It is time to stop building pipelines and move society away from fossil fuels more quickly!" Britney Chino, a student activist from St. Paul told the crowd.

She said the harms of climate change fall disproportionately on the poor, persons of color and Indigenous people.

"Climate change does not affect all equally, and that is truth!"

As they took to the streets of Minnesota and the nation students drew criticism from conservatives who called them naive. Some Republican lawmakers said the youth would be better served to stay in the classroom.

"Our voices are important, and we need to be heard too, not just people who have a whole lot of money who may not have the climate’s best interest in mind," Liz Bolsoni of Apple Valley High remarked.

Many of the students said they'll be old enough to vote in 2020 and will take their climate change concerns to the ballot box. Others said it shouldn't be a political issue.

"I don’t understand not fighting climate change, because the planet effects all of us," Emma Quale of Minneapolis explained.

"I don't necessarily view it as a political thing because it’s just common sense. It's our planet." 

DFL lawmakers are making moves to implement the Green New Deal in pieces here in Minnesota, including a bill setting a goal of 100 percent carbon-free sources of electricity by the year 2050. That plan already has the support of Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.

Republicans at the State Capitol generally support the transition to renewable energy, but often warn moving away from fossil fuels too quickly could jolt the economy by increasing utility bills for industry, businesses and homeowners.

They assert that wind and solar aren't reliable enough in severe weather or times of peak demand and argue power plants fuel with coal and natural gas are needed to back up the grid.

The concept of the Green New Deal has been around for more than a decade, but the election of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York has thrust the movement into the forefront.

Ocasio-Cortez, often referred to by the acronym AOC, has become a lightning rod for Republicans because of her embrace of a green economy.  In fact, on the day Gov. Walz announces his embrace of the carbon-free goal, conservative groups posted photos of Walz and Ocasio-Cortex together.

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