Polly Barks, a co-facilitator with the group Lafayette Climate, works on painting a banner that reads "#ClimateEmergency" during the Bridge Across the Climate Crisis strike. (Photo: Emily DeLetter/Journal & Courier)
LAFAYETTE – Black Friday is typically reserved in American culture as the day after Thanksgiving, the consumerist start of the mad dash of gift-buying before Christmas. This year, a group of people with different idea for the day’s plans met on the John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge to hold the third climate strike of the year.
The West Lafayette Climate Strike joined representatives of Purdue Climate Strikes, Lafayette Climate and Harrison High School’s Students for Environmental Protection, forming a coalition called the Tippecanoe Climate Alliance. The Friday strike also aligned with a Global Climate Strike.
The goals of the newly-formed climate alliance: to show the comradery between the multiple climate organizations in the greater Lafayette area and to pressure the cities of Lafayette and West Lafayette to declare a climate emergency in each city.
A petition was present at the strike for supporters to sign to show support for the declaration of a climate emergency.
In October, West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis and the city council unanimously passed a non-binding resolution to reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent every four years. This promise came after pressure from the Sept. 27 climate strike, where more than 300 people, many of them students walking out of schools, led a march to West Lafayette’s temporary city hall to demand change.
“Anything we can do to improve our environment, it’s almost to the point where its common sense,” Dennis said Friday. “…We have to change how we live our lives. We have to change the way we do business, we have to change the way we do government, and I think its abundantly clear now, with the number of people who show up to each climate strike, that is a popular thing to do.”
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