Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo
New Haven high schoolers took to the Green Thursday evening to call on the city’s adult decision-makers to help them save the planet.
Over 50 demonstrators took to the corner of Church and Chapel to demand that Mayor Toni Harp and the Board of Alders declare a climate emergency in New Haven and pass an “Emergency Resolution to Restore a Safe Climate.”
The Resolution states “New Haven officially commits to leading an emergency mobilization effort that, with appropriate financial and regulatory assistance from state and federal authorities, ends community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by or before December 31, 2030, and immediately initiates an effort to safely draw down carbon from the atmosphere.”
Six hundred twenty other governments such as London, Los Angeles, and New Britain have declared a climate emergency and called for government mobilization. According to the New Haven Climate Movement, this call for immediate action “includes a city-wide, World-War II-scale mobilization to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions within the next decade.”
The New Haven Youth Action Group and New Haven Climate Movement organized Thursday’s rally.
In late May, a similar New Haven youth-oriented climate change rally inspired by Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for the Future was held in the same location.
Mia Sloan and Alexandra Collins, rising Juniors at Wilbur Cross High School, both attended the rally in May. Collins said Thursday’s rally had “almost three times as many people.” Through these rallies, Sloan said she wants “people in power to treat climate change as an emergency.” Collins said she wants “to see new policy change in New Haven.”
Collins said New Haven could make an effort to increase sustainability through “public works projects that use more clean, renewable energy.”
Sloan said near her house along Orange and Linden streets, “the city cut down trees that they promised to replace two years ago” and has yet to replant them.
Raby Gueye is a refugee who moved to New Haven from Senegal just over nine years ago. She left Senegal due to both political and environmental climate issues: People in her community, including her family, had to elevate their houses and move due to rising sea levels. She said she has “seen the consequences of climate change.”
“If my country had taken action earlier, I might still be living there” Gueye lamented. “New Haven needs to act before it’s too late.”
College student Molly Babbin has been working with the New Haven Climate Movement for three weeks. She and other interns have “been working on lots of outreach, meeting with community members, and getting organizations to sign on to our mission.”
Babbin lives on the shoreline. “My house could eventually be underwater due to climate change,” she said. “Every person no matter how much money they have will feel the effects of climate change.”
Along with Babbin, college and high school students including Alexandra Ashworth, Kiana Flores, Ella Zuse, and Julia Kosinski helped organize the rally. Zuse who has been working on community and social media outreach, said regarding climate change “we have to take our actions seriously.” Kosinski added “this issue transcends every aspect of life.”
Volunteers Julia Kosinski and Alissa Boutviseth.
The New Haven Climate Movement collected over 1,000 signatures from New Haveners over the past two weeks supporting the climate change resolution. She said the support from community members “will help pressure New Haven officials into taking accountability and action.”
“We are at a crossroads right now where society can either fight with truth or ignore the truth,” Babbin declared at the rally, megaphone in hand. “I hope the mayor and the Board of Alders will choose to be on the right side of history.”
Hamden Councilman Justin Farmer was present at the rally. He said he hopes Hamden activists will mirror New Haven’s efforts.
In 2018, Farmer helped fight to include language banning fracking in the city Code of Ordinances. He said in order to create massive change, “investments need to happen for bigger cities like Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven first.” In the end though, he said these investments “must come from state levels.”
After gathering to listen to organizers and community leaders speak, the crowd marched and congregated at the steps of City Hall with a call and response chant: “What can we do?” “Stand up and fight back!”
Rally organizers including Chris Schweitzer (bottom left) and Kiana Flores (middle right).
Flores said she “dropped a note in my alderman’s home mail slot.” She said her alder, Ernie Santiago of Fair Haven, has yet to respond.
Another alder, Prospect Hill/Newhallville’s Steven Winter, attended Thursday’s rally and addressed the crowd. He stressed the importance of better use of investments and shifting towards renewable energy resources.
At a public hearing on Aug. 1, the New Haven Climate Movement is scheduled to go before a Board of Alders environment committee to present the resolution. Until then, the organization is planning weekly actions such as rallies and community forums each Thursday.