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Fridays for Future Nelson organizing Black Friday Climate Strike

Nelson Daily Staff
By Nelson Daily Staff
November 27th, 2019

Days after the United Nations raised yet another red flag in the climate change crusade, Fridays for Future Nelson will hold a rally, complete with clothing swap and march through the downtown core, Friday, November 29th.

The event set is for the streets of Nelson on Black Friday, the day after American Thanksgiving where retailers, both in Canada and U.S., offer deep discounts on a limited supply of products.

Organizers are planning to include a clothing swap to highlight the massive environmental impacts of consumerism and the fast fashion industry.

“The fashion industry is responsible for more than 10% of global emissions,” said 16-year-old Jade Osecki, one of the organizers.

Instead of simply bringing awareness to the issue of fast fashion the students want to also make an actual change so they will be holding a clothing swap at the strike.

Organizers Climate Strike Youth are asking people to come to City Hall at 11 a.m. with any old clothing they want to exchange.

“As we start the holiday season, we want to remind people of the environmental and social impact of consumerism and that there are alternatives,” said Alyssa Taburiaux. “The clothing swap is a good opportunity for people to get new clothes without contributing to the destruction of our earth.”  

The first climate strike in Nelson took place in March in 2019. Since then, Nelson youth have organized seven strikes, the largest happening in late September when more than a 1,000 people marched through Nelson to raise awareness regarding the sudden change needed to halt climate change.

“Some people ask us why we are still striking,” said Wa-ya Aeon. “We are still striking because we have yet to see the changes needed to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. We have yet to see legitimate action.”

Tuesday, the UN warned countries around the planet have procrastinated for too long and will need to increase their carbon-cutting efforts five-fold to avoid climate chaos.

The UN said the emissions gap report found that even if all current climate pledges are met, the world will warm by 3.2C this century – bringing wide-ranging and destructive climate impacts.

The UN Environment Programme said it was still possible to stay within the 1.5C celling on temperature rises that scientists say is necessary to avoid disastrous consequences. But to hold to within 1.5C ceiling would would require emissions cuts of 7.6 per cent a year between 2020-2030.

Following Friday’s clothing swap, participants will begin to march through the streets of Nelson beginning at noon followed by a series of speeches from the youth.

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