The crowd was small, just a few hundred people, mostly high school- or college-aged. They milled around Lake Union Park, north of downtown Seattle, on a chilly, overcast Friday in December, holding signs with magic-marker drawings of the Earth in flames and slogans like “Climate Justice Now” and “Stop Burning Our Future.”
At 11 a.m., two high school sophomores with microphones climbed onto the rim of a broad fountain, drawing the crowd together and leading them out of the park. The rough column of people, chanting as they went, wound south through Amazon’s glassy office buildings and downtown high-rises to rally at City Hall as part of a nationwide Youth Climate Strike.
As the last stragglers trickled out of the park, a 17-year-old in jeans, sneakers, and a black Youth Strike T-shirt collected art supplies that had been provided for last-minute poster making. A high school senior with bright orange hair and an inexhaustible motor, Grace Lambert is co-executive director of Washington Youth Climate Strike, the group that organized the protest. This day was the culmination of months of hard work.
Earlier that morning, before the crowd gathered, I’d met up with ... Read more
