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Climate Strike Testimonials
Two of our youth gave testimonials this past Sunday on their experience of the Climate Strike. Ben Kuchma is a Junior at Winchester High and his brother Alex is a 5th grader at Morroco.Benjamin Kuchma
I was asked to talk today about my experiences during the September 20th climate strike. This event encouraged youth attending school and adults in work, to strike in order to protest the absence of action regarding climate change. Since I am a person who is concerned about this, I was determined to go protest. When I got to the location of the strike I felt an energy which existed for one purpose, to end climate change – a movement inspired by Greta Thunberg’s actions. After a round of speeches, we marched to the State House and the organizers led chants encouraging Governor Charlie Baker, to come out and recognize our demands.
After the Strike I decided to do more research on what is currently being done, and the numbers were shocking. Currently the U.S. only generates 15% of electricity by renewables which is much less than China and Russia, and far below leading countries that have more than 50% renewables. Plus, Massachusetts only generates 5% renewable of its total energy usage which makes it number 27 by percent renewable energy out of the 50 states. I thought this was shameful. As a state which seems to pride itself on its progressive stance on climate change we should be doing better since this is the most important issue right now.
The reason I call climate change the most important issue is because it affects many other issues. To fix this we must immediately and aggressively work towards a clean energy future since we don’t even have 10 years to fix it. The future might seem alarming, but you can help. Do some research for yourself and see what we are facing. You can join strikes and push lawmakers and others to face the problems of global warming. You can also join people who are taking action. For example, our church is starting an environmental ministry to put up solar panels on the roof and encourage more climate action. So the question that I leave with you is: what are you going to do to help with this problem? Thank you.
Alex Kuchma
We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. Species are dying. Humans are dying. And if we don’t do something now, it will be very bad for every species on the planet, including us. We might start getting hurricanes in Boston. And many humans will die or go through hardships.
The reason I am passionate about global warming is because I realize I know this is very bad. Other people don’t know the full extent. When I really started to do stuff about global warming, I think it was in the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade. That was when I saw Al Gore’s movie about global warming. I started making a whole slideshow about it and I presented it to my whole school. I also put posters around the school. I am trying to show kids that this is a bigger problem than they realize.
So of course I went to the Climate March. There were thousands of people there. Most of the people were teenagers or adults. I think I was the only kid my age that chose to go. Everybody was taking pictures of my sign. The good part was the feeling inside of me. I felt good because I felt like I was actually doing something and using the power I have, which is very limited.
I think that we need to work harder to get a green world. The children are younger than you. We don’t have much power, like I said before. But we need you to help us to have a new world for the generations after us, better than the one we are in now.
