The way many young people see it, the effects of climate change will be their burden to bear. Young "climate strikers" in Maine say that's why they're walking out of schools Friday and taking to the streets.
"We will not be ignored. And it's just a matter of time, and so the people listening to the masses will have to start listening to our demands," says Hunter Bischoff of the College of the Atlantic.
Bischoff helped organize student strike participants in Bar Harbor. He says disrupting business as usual is necessary to ensure that leaders recognize the call for action as a movement.
"Our leaders are failing in their duty to act on our behalf,” says Bischoff. “We're running out of time to shift away from a failing trajectory."
The protests begin a week of Climate Change activism leading up to the U.N. Climate Action Summit Monday. Organizers are already calling for another walkout on September 27.
This story is part of a week-long reporting project Covering Climate Now by Maine Public and more than 300 other news outlets around the world. The series comes in advance of the United Nations Climate Action Summit on Monday Sept. 23 in New York. More information here.
