Activist clubs organize forum to spread awareness about climate crisis

By Emily Bohr and Sasha Goldman

On September 20th, in tandem with the international Climate Strike movement, Albany High School’s student clubs organized a discussion-based forum about the climate crisis. Young Democratic Socialists of America, Feminist Club, and Earth Team coordinated speakers, a slide show, and discussion for the event.

Junior Dahlia Wilson, president of YDSA, pointed to the science of climate change as a reason for the forum.

“There are a lot of really scary statistics about what will happen in a few years to our climate and by having a forum, and hearing the ideas of others, people can find a way to deal with those realities in a healthy and productive way.”

Wilson believes “that mass movements are the core of any political change because no matter how important the small actions of citizens may be, they are minute to what mass movements are capable of.”

Wilson also said that our government and corporations mislead the public about the significance of small actions citizens can take.

“Large oil companies have known the vast scale of the damage they are doing to the environment and know that individual actions are never going to counteract that. However, we have been lied to by those corporations.”

Wilson said that the activist clubs who organized the event focused on participating in the Climate Strike locally because “we need to be focusing on ways that we can reach out to all communities and pressure our politicians, in order to counteract the climate crisis.”