On Friday, hundreds of students and activists from throughout the Capital Region

converged on West Capital Park to protest and bring awareness to one giant issue: climate

change. The event was part of the Global Climate Strike, an international effort of similar rallies

and marches created to, by skipping classes and work, disrupt the norm of the usual Friday

workday.

In Albany and around the world the message was loud and clear: climate change is an

existential crisis and we aren’t doing enough.

“I’m here to tell our politicians that young students and people care about climate change

and we want something done about it,” said Madeleine Wadeson, a freshman political science

major from Warwick, NY who skipped class herself to be there.

Organized by the United Nations Association of America (UNUSA), the UAlbany

Students for Sustainability, the UAlbany Peace Action, the Albany branch of the Sunrise

Movement and the Albany Climate Strike group, protestors trickled into the grounds outside

Page Hall in the downtown campus where many took the time to prepare banners and signs.

From there, after a speech from UAlbany senior and environmental activist, Grace McGrath, the

growing group, which by then included a contingent from Saint Rose, flooded the quiet capital

streets.

“We’re sending out a message to all people,” UNUSA President Benitha Muyizere, a

junior from Rwanda, told the ASP. “It’s more of a climate action advocacy. We have proposed

ideas that we will be sending to the mayor [Kathy Sheehan] and we hope they can be adopted as

soon as possible because the Earth is dying and we are going to save it has to be now”.

Through rhythmic chants, laughter, car horns in both support and derision (but mostly the

former) and lots of filming from onlookers, the marchers arrived at the park in the shadow of the

New York State capital building. UAlbany students were soon joined by other organizations

from around the city including protestors from Albany High School.

Early on, students were asked to stand behind the microphones as UAlbany student

organizer Audrea Din addressed both the audience and the surrounding political temples made

small by the throngs of people. She and other student leaders from the area denounced world

leaders for failing to address climate change, especially decrying the rollback of 53

environmental laws and counting under the Trump Administration. They discussed the

disproportionate effects of the worsening climate issue on traditionally underserved communities

and demanded to have their voices heard.

The next five minutes were spent in total silence, on the ground. The mass of protestors

laid on their backs for what was dubbed a “Die-In”. It gave the eerie appearance of a mass of

dead bodies on the capital lawn. And on a hot late September day, the message scene seemed all

too believable.

“We are here to show the people in Washington and New York State lawmakers that

something needs to be done,” said Grace McGrath. “We’re the ones that are going to be dealing

with this in the future. They aren’t. So it’s important for us to stand up and speak out.

As the march and rally wound down to a peace concert with ageless cover songs of

change and triumph written by Bob Dylan, I looked around and took stock of what I had just

witnessed. It had occurred all around the world, in Washington D.C. and New York City, in

Berlin, London and Australia, so on and so forth. I saw little kids climbing statues to get a better

look at the crowd and their parents making sure they paid attention. I saw older people crying,

their tears matched by students as well. I saw people trying to make change, demanding, not

asking, that they be heard and they be taken seriously.

They came from all over. From UAlbany and Saint Rose to offices and street stores, from

Long Island and Buffalo to New Jersey, Chicago and Rwanda. They came with drums, horns,

guitars, banners and signs. They came with demands and they came with hope. But above all,

what mattered was that they came at all.