UT Students and Austinites Rally for Climate Action

By Madeline Salinas

Reporting Texas TV

AUSTIN, Texas –  Climate activists and University of Texas students met March 25  at the UT Tower to kick off the Fridays for Future global climate strike.

UT’s Students Fighting for Climate Change (SFCC) organization hosted the strike and welcomed other student organizations and local Austinites to join the march to the Texas Capitol.

Marchers made their way from the UT Tower to the steps of the Texas Capitol. (Photo: Madeline Salinas, Reporting Texas TV)

At only 15 years old, climate activist Greta Thunberg founded the Fridays for Future initiative in 2018. Since then, the student-based advocacy movement has found its way around the world. More than 600 cities and over 90 countries joined the global strike.

When SFCC student director Adam Day noticed there was not a registered march in Austin, he made sure one would happen.

“We wanted to take the initiative as the student org to be able to actually establish it on campus,” Day said.

Marchers on the steps of the Texas Capitol. (Photo: Madeline Salinas, Reporting Texas TV)

Marchers made their way to the Capitol steps with chants heard throughout the grounds. With the help of a megaphone, marchers called on lawmakers to heed their requests to shut down the Fayette Coal Power Plant in La Grange. Some wanted the state legislature to hold ERCOT accountable for the power grid shutdown in 2021.

Concerned for the future, participants in Friday’s march wanted to educate others who may not know about the seriousness of climate change.

“I’m here mainly to raise awareness among the population,” UT student Aryan Dhanraj said. “It’s getting a whole lot worse and we need to act now.”

Megan Raby, a science and environmental historian at UT, said she just hopes that others will soon see the dire need for climate action, as time is running out.

“It will get worse as we get older,” Raby said. “You just have to put your own lifetime on the climate projections to see that it’s not really a pretty picture.”

UT students and Austinites brought signs to the Fridays for Future march. (Photo: Madeline Salinas, Reporting Texas TV)