The Associated Press reports--via the Star Tribune--in Minnesota student climate strikers to march on Capitol:
Minnesota students concerned over climate change are planning to skip school and march on the state Capitol in St. Paul on Friday as part of global protests by young people demanding action from their governments.
Organizers are calling for legislation at the state and local level in Minnesota to reverse climate change. They're also calling for a halt to Enbridge Energy's planned Line 3 crude oil pipeline across northern Minnesota.
The St. Paul protest is one of over 3,000 climate strikes planned in 120 countries on Friday. The inspiration comes from Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg. The 16-year-old has been in Washington this week for several days of rallies and lobbying efforts.
A similar climate strike drew about 1,000 Minnesota students to the Capitol in March. Organizers hope Friday's attracts 3,000.
As the map above from the MN Strikes Back Facebook page illustrates, the St. Paul march isn't the only event tomorrow in Minnesota--and it's not just a metro thing.
Read more at MinnPost in Katie Knuth's column Climate Strike: It’s time to join our youth.
One new group--the Minnesota House Climate Action Caucus--stood with climate emergency student leaders at a press conference this afternoon. Here's the video:
News coverage of the press event
The Star Tribune Editorial Board wrote in Don't delay on climate action;Time to lay partisan differences aside and unite to save the planet:
The movement to stave off the worst of climate change is a job that gets bigger with every day of inaction. We no longer need studies to verify that the earth's climate is changing. The evidence is before our eyes and growing.
That's why every bit of action to preserve our world for future generations is needed and must be amplified. On Friday, thousands are expected to take part in a global Youth Climate Strike. That includes young people in Minnesota, who will be gathering at the State Capitol. Their fervor should be taken seriously. They know it's their future that is at stake, and the more grown-ups shirk the hard decisions, the bigger and harder their job will be.
To that end, a small group of state lawmakers has formed a Climate Action Caucus, and they say they will be actively soliciting the views and energy of young people.
"We're in a crisis," said Rep. Frank Hornstein, chairman of the House Transportation Finance and Policy Committee and a member of the newly formed caucus. "It demands that we act at every level, elevate the issue wherever and whenever we can. The science is clear and the need is urgent."
The caucus will be led by Rep. Patty Acomb, a first-termer but steeped in the issues through her work at the state Department of Natural Resources, Hennepin County Environmental Services and on solar energy and modernizing water infrastructure. The task — to restart efforts on a climate change agenda that hit a hard stop in the Senate earlier this year — is a daunting one. Gov. Tim Walz pushed hard for a plan that would have adopted a 2050 deadline for carbon-free electricity statewide. That proposal deserves a second look. Skepticism is fine, but both sides should commit to setting aside ideology in the search for what's doable.
It starts with acknowledging that we have already delayed action too long to settle on easy answers. There are none. The choices ahead will involve some difficulty and cost. We brought that upon ourselves through inaction. But there is still time to spare the future generations a world that is less than the one we inherited.
At the Pioneer Press, Dave Orrick reports in Minn. Dems form ‘Climate Action Caucus’ on eve of student strike over ‘climate crisis’:
As untold numbers of Minnesota students prepared for a global student climate, Minnesota House Democrats formed a “Climate Action Caucus” Thursday in what one veteran lawmaker said was the party’s intent to “double down” on climate change legislation.
“We hear you, and we stand with you,” state Rep. Patty Acomb, a first-term Democrat from Minnetonka, said as she turned to a group of leaders of the student strike during a news conference at the state Capitol.
Student climate strikes — where students walk out of school to protest perceived inaction to human-caused aspects of the earth’s warming — have rapidly become the hallmark of a global movement which has grabbed attention but whose impact remains uncertain.
Friday’s will be a big one.
With demonstrations in more than 130 countries, Friday’s climate strike is being billed by organizers as perhaps the largest mass protest in history. In Minnesota, events range from Bemidji to St. Paul, where participants will gather at 11:30 a.m. at a sculpture garden west of the Capitol. . . .
Orrick goes on to examine the partisan divide on this issue in Minnesota, then looks at the scientific consensus on the crisis.
Of course, Minnesota House Republicans (who've voted their climate crisis denial several times) and their allies are fighting back. Our favorite? The Heartland Institute's Legislative Pulse: Defending Climate and Energy Realism in Minnesota, which trots out Glencoe Republican Glenn Gruenhagen:
Minnesota state Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen (R-Glencoe) says energy socialism is just as bad as socialism in any other area of public policy.
Editor’s Note: State Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen (R-Glencoe), a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, is serving his fifth term in Minnesota’s House of Representatives. Gruenhagen serves on the Long-Term Care Division, Education Policy, and Health and Human Services Finance Division Committees.
Burnett: You recently wrote a piece for the Hutchinson Leader in which you cite research in The Heartland Institute book Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming to argue scientists should reject the Green New Deal. What facts did you find particularly persuasive in the book?
Gruenhagen: I thought the entire book was informative, exposing the lies, deceit, and exaggerated “evidence” for so-called climate change. I really appreciated the debunking of the claim “97 percent of scientists agree humans are causing climate change.”
Nice plug for the publisher. Nice to rely on a single source.
We recommend the classic 2013 MNGOP Rep. Gruenhagen on climate change: "It's just a complete United Nations fraud" [VIDEO] at City Pages and Bluestem's own 2015 post, LCCMR debate, pt. 3: Watch freshman legislator react to Gruenhagen's climate change denial. While the Youtube of the moment seems to have vanished, the screengrab is still around:
Tomorrow, students will be doing more than making faces at this sort of dangerous malarky.
Screengrab: Freshman legislator Keith Frank (upper left), R-St. Paul Park, reacts to Glenn Gruenhagen's climate change denying remarks. Franke voted for the Bly amendment; see Journal of the House page 6378).
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