I’ve been away from the blog for a bit because I’ve been helping my former employer, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, organize an online Virtual Climate Rally. In addition to learning and testing the online platform (Zoom … what else?), I’ve mostly had my head buried in Adobe Premiere editing the video you see above. It was worth the effort.
Friday, April 24 was originally set as the date for another round of global protests like the Global Climate Strike that took place last September. The virus dashed those plans.
As a result of going virtual, however, we’ve ended up with a film filled with inspiration. As the individual videos arrived from the student activists who had been invited to speak, I was touched time and again. Here they are facing two immense threats to their future — a global pandemic that is still burning out of control and the specter of climate change — yet each of them expressed determination and hope.
“Virtual” anything is a poor substitute for the real thing. But the dedication and commitment evinced by these young people is absolutely authentic.
In addition to the inspiration, the video features a moving musical interlude from blues man Kenny Neal and some fun video surprises engineered by editing wizard TD. After watching, please share far and wide!
Here’s the contact info for everybody appearing in the video.
Julia Zeitlin – Student and founder of Sunrise Movement Palo Alto Hub
https://www.facebook.com/SunrisePaloAlto/ or email sunrisemvmntpaloalto@gmail.com
Aria Luna – Young artist and climate activist Aria Luna, who showcases a short animation she created for this special event.
https://www.arialuna.com
Kristy Mualim – Kristy Mualim is formally trained as a computational geneticist at Stanford University, and is also part of the Sunrise Movement fighting for state-level Green New Deal policies. email sunrisemvmntpaloalto@gmail.com
Kenny Neal is known as a modern swamp-blues and multi-instrumentalist. His Grammy nominated songs draw from the sizzling sounds of his native Louisiana.
http://www.kennyneal.net/
Tahoe Roe – Student and member of the outreach team from Silicon Valley Youth Climate Strike
https://www.svyouthclimatestrike.org/
Priyanka Joshi – Student and member of the Mitty Advocacy Project
https://www.mitty.com/campus-ministry/social-justice-advocacy1
Maggie Dong – Maggie Dong is an outreach lead for the California Youth Climate Strike and the Silicon Valley Youth Climate Strike team.
https://www.svyouthclimatestrike.org/
Jamie Minden – Student and co-founder of Silicon Valley Youth Climate Strikes. Active member of the Sunrise Movement.
https://www.svyouthclimatestrike.org/
Chris Field – Professor and Director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Former Chair, UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
https://woods.stanford.edu/