by the Vanguard
Davis, CA– Youth leaders held the 200th climate strike today in Central Davis, joined by a ‘Raging Grannies’ choir, students, families and other residents of Davis. Many held colorful home-made placards that urged Biden to declare a climate emergency, called for taxing Big Oil’s record profits, and advocated low-carbon transport.
The weekly Friday protest on the corner of 5th and B has been held since Davis’ biggest ever climate protest in September 2019 when almost 1000 young people walked out of school and marched downtown. It is inspired by the Swedish youth activist, Greta Thunberg, and is part of an international #FridaysforFuture movement.
On Friday September 15, youth around the world will again hold a massive global strike and demand an end to the fossil fuel era. Everyone is invited to join the youth-led march and action at midday (12pm) outside the Veteran’s Memorial Center and to bring chants, songs, murals and more demanding that Newsom and Biden declare a climate 
emergency. There will also be a family friendly event in Old Sacramento at 11am on Sunday September 17.
Eliot Larson, coordinator of Fridays for Future Davis said:
“I began taking action when I woke up to orange skies and toxic air for what felt like the hundredth day in a row. I didn’t know what to do so I wrote a letter to President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Governor Newsom. I got in touch with local environment activists and took on the task of standing at 5th and B Street every Friday with a sign and encouraging my peers to join me. Now, two years later, I am passing this role of local coordinator on to truly incredible youth leaders.
“I am leaving California this summer because it is no longer inhabitable for me. I need clean air to breathe. I need a place to live with tolerable summer temperatures. I need a place to live that isn’t rapidly running out of water. It breaks my heart to leave my birthplace but this is yet another reality of the climate emergency.
“More and more places are being destroyed by the entirely unnatural disaster caused by the climate crisis. Hundreds of species are going extinct everyday, climate crisis refugee numbers are soaring and yet still everyone can’t imagine life without the fossil fuel industry. The truth is that we will only be able to survive without it. We do not have another choice. I listen to my peers talk about if they want to have children someday and they all say ‘why bring more kids into a world that won’t be livable in 20 years?’
“I hope that you will join us in taking action, whether it be by striking every Friday or otherwise, so that future children will not be burdened by the fear and grief that my generation deals with every single day.”
Organizer and participant, Mattias RowenBale (he/him), a 2023 Davis High Senior said:
“I’ve always believed that taking action, any kind of action, is better than sitting idly by. It may not seem like much, but every Friday in Davis there is a community on this corner sharing our message and advocating for change. We must declare a climate emergency, but we also must convince Davis to make progress locally. We still have a long way to go, and the presence of Fridays For Future has been vital in showing Davis just how urgent these changes are.”
I’m curious, where is Eliot moving to?
So Davis had climate strikes as far back as 1823? I didn’t know that was a thing in the 1800’s.
Not sure whether this is trying to be funny or clever – clearly neither – but it certainly avoids talking about the issues the strikers are raising. If you bother to read it, you will see it is a weekly protest so 200th anniversary means the strike has taken place on 200 weeks.
The title is misleading.
Most people/organizations don’t hold a “weekly anniversary”.
Most organizations don’t have actions for 200 consecutive weeks.
I believe a lot of organizations hold weekly gatherings.
No other organization calls each weekly meeting an “anniversary” – especially in the title of an article.
It helps if you read the full definition: “broadly : a date that follows such an event by a specified period of time measured in units other than years ” Particularly if you are going to be pedantic.