We're Striking For 72 Hours This Earth Day — Are You Joining Us?

In 100 days exactly, we plan to strike again. On April 22, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, young people and adults across the United States will once again take to the streets to demand climate action. Earth Day will launch three successive days of massive strikes, fulfilling our promise to take the climate strike movement in back of what we achieved on September 20.


Inaction isn't an alternative. This has been the hottest decade on record and last year was the second hottest ever. Since the bushfire season started in November, fires in Australia have killed 25 people, wiped out over a billion animals, and blanketed cities across the nation with historic levels of air pollution. Since 2020 started, thirteen days back, floods in Indonesia have killed more than 66 people and displaced 400,000 more. These are the signals of climate change — the crisis is here.


We have had enough of the inaction of government and firm leaders. Right now is our time to come with each other and be unified in our demand for change. On September 20, 2019, over 650,000 people across the United States, and 4 million worldwide, participated in the biggest youth-led climate mobilization the world has ever seen. Over 1,300 locations across the nation left school and work, with NYC and Boston school districts permitting students to be excused from school to attend, and hundreds of agencies publicly supporting us.


Although, marching and striking for a day is just a begin. It’s right now time to take it to the next level and maintain this momentum after awhile. Indigenous youth and youth of color, who are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, have claimed their rightful seat at the table. We are uniting all youth and adults across nations and movements. We call upon each person — almost every one of you —  to accompany us as we strike for climate justice on Earth Day.


Indigenous elders and leaders have issued warnings for decades. They told of a time any time the black snake would rise, and that time has come. Scientists agree that the climate crisis is no longer a future dystopian threat. It’s happening before our eyes, and it’s going to get worse. If no action is taken, the fires will become more frequent, the floods more deadly, and the heat waves more extreme. More lives will be lost and more homes will be destroyed.


It’s not also late to turn things around. Solutions exist. All we need right now is the will. We must make the choice, each of us, to join the growing movement and protect our lives while at the same time fighting for each person — no matter what the color of their skin, where they were place on Earth, or their economic standing — to have fresh and healthy food at our tables; tidy, safe drinking water running from the taps; and access to a good, meaningful job.


The 2020 strikes will start on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Fifty years back, 20 million people took to the streets on April 22 to demand a cleaner, healthier environment. This historic day of action led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Organization and the passing of several laws to safeguard tidy air and water, and protect the organic world.


A lot has changed, for better and for worse, in the last 50 years. This anniversary must be a time to not just celebrate our triumphs, although also to look back on our defeats and to build on those lessons as environmental activism has grown and evolved over the decades.


Wednesday, April 22nd, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, will be the launch of one of the most powerful civic actions for environmental protection in our history. It will supply a possibility to listen to Indigenous peoples’ wisdom, mirror on our connections to this earth, and serve as an invitation for each person to create the choice to accompany us and commit to making climate change action a top priority. It will kick off three days of mass actions, including rallies, marches, strikes, teach-ins, and protests.


Thursday, April 23, will be a day focused on community action. College students at dozens of campuses across the nation will be calling on their colleges to stop profiting off of the destruction of our land and climate and to divest from fossil fuels. Adults will be targeting their place being an employee and also demanding that our everyday institutions — like Wells Fargo, Chase Bank, Liberty Mutual, and other banks and companies — take cash out of fossil fuels. This is the day that we must reach out to each person we know and ask them to step up with us.


Finally, on Friday, April 24, we as a nation will demonstrate our unity through mass mobilization. This is the day we strike. Led by young people, we are calling on each person who can to strike from school or work, and take to the streets. We are united in our requires for immediate action to address this existential threat of climate change. This is our time to stand with each other and use our collective voice to demand action.


This decade may be our final chance to turn things around. As we approach important elections here in the US, the climate and why it will alter our future must be at the best of every voter’s mind. This is why we are striking for three days. Come November, we need to be able to see a record turnout of young people at the polls, and the Earth Day Strikes will kick off the countdown.


From April 22nd to April 24th, we need all hands on deck to send a message that we reject to go to school and work while inaction, fueled by greed and profit, threatens our planet. We need each person — young, old, and in between — to join us.


The three days of action are an open invitation to anyone who believes our generation, and all generations that come soon after us, deserve a future safe from climate catastrophe.


The time to act is currently. This must be the decade of climate action, and this must be the year it starts. We hope you imagine this your invitation to join the movement to save our lives, and add your name to Strike With Us.


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Alyssa Lee, Divest Ed


Marlow Banes, Earth Guardians


Meadow Cook, Earth Uprising


Caroline Choi, Extinction Rebellion Youth US


Camille Petitcolas, Fridays For Future USA


Katie Eder, Future Coalition


Thomas Lopez Jr, International Indigenous Youth Council


Naina Agrawal-Hardin, Sunrise Movement


Feliquan Charlemagne, US Youth Climate Strike


Nadia Nazar, Zero Hour


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Drew Hudson, 198 methods


Tamara Toles O'Laughlin and Bill McKibben, 350.Org


Amy Gray, 350 Colorado


Karen Bearden, 350 Triangle


Maayan Cohen, Alliance for Climate Education


Katie Huffling and Barbara Sattler, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments


Thomas Oppel, American Sustainable Company Council


Ted Glick, Behind Extreme Energy


Kassie Siegel, Center for Biological Diversity


Linda Rudolph MD, Center for Climate Change and Health


Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network


RL Miller, Climate Hawks Vote


Jairo Garcia, Climate Reality Project Atlanta Chapter


Sam Sheka Moi, Community Health


Spike Buckley, Earth’s Call Fund


Denis Hayes, Earth Day Network


Geri Freedman, Elders Climate Action


Rev. Nathan Empsall, Faithful America


Ariella Granett, Flight Free USA


Jane Fonda, Fire Drill Fridays


Ankush K. Bansal, MD, Florida Clinicians for Climate Action


Liz Butler, Companions of the Earth


Michael Hansen, Gasp


Ed Maibach, MPH, PhD, George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication


Dr. Laura Andereko PhD RN, Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies


Rev. Fletcher Harper, GreenFaith


Annie Leonard, Greenpeace


Mike Menzel, MD, Dietitians for a Healthy Climate


Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., Hip Hop Caucus


Jonathan Kagi, Kagi Media


Gene Karpinski, League of Conservation Voters


Lauren Burke, Labor Network for Sustainability


Jared Meyers, Legacy Vacation Resorts


Jaquie Algee, March On


Sara Newmark, MegaFood


Charissa Verdoorn, Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light


Dominique Browning, Moms Tidy Air Force


Kelsey Wirth, Mothers Out Front


Carol Ehrle, Movement for a People's Party


Manuel Gorrin, Nature's Path Foods


Katya Moorman and Karen Dunn, No Kill Magazine


Rebecca Concepcion Apostol, Oil Change International


Justin Winters, One Earth


Ben Grossman-Cohen, Oxfam America


Brennan Lewis, Peace First


Brandi Kaufman, PeaceJam and Billion Acts


Sam Read, Peoples Climate Movement


Rev. Michael Malcolm, People's Justice Council


Ned Ketyer, M.D., Physicians for Social Responsibility - Pennsylvania


Nadya Dutchin, Power Shift Network


Alan Minsky and Russell Greene, Progressive Democrats of America


Shelley Tanenbaum, Quaker Earthcare Witness


Ashwani Vasishth, Ramapo College of New Jersey


Mike Brune, Sierra Club


Lance Gould, Silicon Valley Story Lab


Susan Jaffe, South Beach District 6 Democratic Club of San Francisco


Raul Monreal, Penn Diehl, and Melissa Elder, Sunrise Movement San Diego


Stefanie Sekich-Quinn, Surfrider Foundation


Will Morin, The Climate Reality Project: South Carolina Upstate Chapter


Mike Harrington, Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School


Dr. Kathleen Rest, Union of Concerned Scientists


Rev. Dr. Susan Frederick-Gray, Unitarian Universalist Association


Rev. Dr. Douglas B. Hunt, Unitarian Universalist Ministry For Earth


Frederick E. Kowal, United University Professions


John Kerry, World War Zero