Around a thousand people walked out of classrooms and workplaces in Albuquerque Friday as part of the global climate strike to call for action on climate change. KUNM caught up with the strikers at Robinson Park.
Sonora Beievolny, Amy Biehl High School: I think there needs to be a change. I want to be able to appreciate this planet. Everyone is responsible for this, this is everyone's problem. It's going to affect everyone in the same way if aliens attacked the world, we would all have to come together. This is our alien invasion. We need to get up and save ourselves before we can't.
Sasha Menendez, Homeschool Father: I want my kids to be involved with saving the enviornment. You know, it was actually more me than my kids. As a part of our schooling, I thought this was something that we should take a break from because it is so important.
Conna Meader, Teacher at Mountain Mohagony Community School: I teach a class called Issues To Actions, where the students get to pick an issue that is important to them. My students have picked global warming as their issue and wanted to come, so I supported them in coming.
Seth Chavez, Student at Mountain Mohagony Community School: Global warming is a very big issue that faces humanity today and I believe it's important. Even small things like coming to a rally can make big differences. If there is a lot of news people out here reporting it, more people will learn about global warming and make small changes that will eventually be big.
Sabine Pritchard, Student at Mountain Mohagony Community School: I'm excited to be here because I really want to support this and I want to stop global warming. I think it is our responsiblity as this generation to do something about it. I stopped eating meat. I ask my parents to turn their car off when they are waiting to pick me up. I'm trying to make little changes but I really want to support the cause.
Jim Crowley, Albuquerque: I'm 43. My generation let the ball slip in a lot of respects. Not just in terms of climate change, but equality and other issues. I feel guilty about that. When I was a teenager, it was easier for me to be post-ironic and say, 'I don't care. Someone else will fix it.' This generation is taking this problem by the scruff of the neck and they are going to fix it for us or force us to fix it.
Maxwell, Student at Dolores Gonzales Elementary School: I'm here becasue this is my future we are talking about. I don't want to live in a world and have grandchildren and children who are living in a world that is so polluted that they have to put on a gas mask every time they walk outside. I care about this world. There is not another one. We can't just fly off to Mars or something. All of this that we've created and tall the corporate companies that are destroying our world, well, we don't have another one. It's really important that we take care of it. My mom said she would meet me down in the atrium of my school and I walked out of class. Now we are here. If all the grownups of the world who are trying to change this and the other grownups don't listen, maybe it's up to the students. That might be true. We might be the ones to change it.
Lauren Meiklejohn, Maxwell's mother: My son is an elementary school student and so he is not allowed to leave campus on his own recognizance. Our principal had discussed this climate strike but discouraged parents from taking their children out of school. I disagree. We have to make noise and push back. This is not business as usual. We can't pretend that this isn't happening. The time for action is now. I gave my son a choice. I told him I was going to go, and he said that he wanted to go with me. So, I went to go get him from school.
