Youth Earth Day Rally for Climate, Jobs & Justice with Assembly EnCon Chair Deborah Glick (AD-66, Manhattan)
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***: April 21, 2023
Contact: Xaver Kandler, xaver@nyrenews.org, (412) 420-4823
Web: @NYRenews | www.nyrenews.org
Youth Earth Day Rally for Climate, Jobs & Justice with Assembly EnCon Chair Deborah Glick (AD-66, Manhattan)
Assembly Environmental Conservation Chair Deborah Glick joined youth climate activists in Foley Square for an Earth Day rally in support of the Climate, Jobs & Justice Package
New York, New York – On Friday, April 21st at 4 pm, Assembly Environmental Conservation Chair Deborah Glick joined youth climate activists from NY Renews, TREEage, Fridays for Future NYC, and Sixth Street Community Center to celebrate Earth Day and call for climate justice for young people in New York state.
At the event on the day before Earth Day, Assemblymember Glick and youth activists spoke about the benefits of the Climate, Jobs & Justice Package. In particular, they discussed that:
Young people deserve clean air and water, and to live in healthy, thriving communities.
Youth should have healthy New York schools, training for jobs in the renewable energy field, and a clean economy that doesn’t pollute our neighborhoods.
Young people will inherit a world of extreme climate, which is why New York needs resilient infrastructure and protection from extreme weather.
Youth in Black, Brown, Indigenous, and working communities most impacted by the climate crisis and pollution deserve to take the lead in charting a path toward a just, renewable future for our state!
Assemblymember Glick is the Assembly sponsor of the Climate and Community Protection Fund (CCPF), a bill in the NY Renews coalition’s Climate, Jobs & Justice Package (CJJP) that would direct money and resources to communities across New York State for grassroots-led renewable energy planning, lowering energy bills, creating good green, union jobs, and building out state infrastructure, including electric buildings and public transit. Taken together, the bills within the CJJP would help safeguard NY’s climate future for the young people of today and tomorrow.
Quotes
“I’m honored to stand with young activists who are so dedicated to fighting for solutions to the alarming impacts of climate change that we are seeing around the world. Young people deserve to live on a healthy planet and we have a responsibility to do everything we can to mitigate the damage that’s already been done and to create a sustainable, clean environment for generations to come.” said Deborah J. Glick, NYS Assemblymember and Environmental Conservation Chair, District 66
“Young New Yorkers are ready for an investment in their present and their future through the Climate, Jobs, and Justice Package,” said Shiv Soin, Co-Executive Director of TREEage and Steering Committee Member of New York Renews. “We’re proud to stand with Chairwoman Glick in our effort to rapidly build renewable energy across the state, fund green public schools, and create thousands of green union jobs, particularly for CUNY and SUNY students. A better world is possible –– and we can begin making it a reality by passing the entirety of the Climate, Jobs, and Justice Package this session.”
Keanu Arpels-Josiah, Fridays For Future NYC: “As a Fridays For Future activist and constituent in AD-66, I’m so glad that Assemblymember Glick is standing with us for the Climate, Jobs, & Justice Package, which is critical to ensuring that New York does its job in securing a survivable and just future and present. The science is clear: the climate crisis is happening now, and we need to take immediate and transformative action.”
Helen Mancini, Fridays For Future NYC: “As a young person concerned about the climate crisis, I am hopeful for legislators like Assembly-member Glick who are leading New York forward with their support of the Climate, Jobs, & Justice Package. It is critical that we act now to begin an equitable transition for a green New York!”
Zoe de Pedro, Sixth Street Community Center Teen Climate Justice Program & Fridays For Future NYC: “As a 16 year old and climate activist, I am enraged that our state government is still giving financial handouts to fossil fuel companies in 2023. Through the Climate, Jobs & Justice Package, NY State has a wonderful opportunity to fund climate solutions, invest in future generations of New Yorkers, and divest from the fossil fuels that harm all of us, and I’m glad Assemblymember Glick has our back.”
Photos of the event can be found here.
Video of the rally speakers can be found on NY Renews’ Facebook page here.
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NY Renews is a coalition of more than 350 environmental justice, community, faith, labor, and multi-issue organizations fighting for just climate policy for New Yorkers. We are the force behind the nation's most aggressive climate law, the NY State Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, enacted in 2019. The Climate, Jobs & Justice Package is the next step in our fight for climate justice in New York.
TREEage educates high school and college students on the magnitude of the climate crisis, legacies of environmental injustice, and our vision for an equitable future; trains the next generation of climate activists to lead their schools and neighborhoods and build winning campaigns; and champions Green New Deal legislation by mobilizing young people to make it a reality.
Fridays for Future NYC is the NYC chapter of the Fridays For Future movement founded by Greta Thunberg in 2018. We are a group of high school activists demanding action on the climate crisis and a just and immediate transition to 100% renewable energy. The Climate, Jobs & Justice Package has been a demand of two of our most recent NYC global strike marches which each amassed thousands of people. We are also the organizers of the 2019 Climate Strike in NYC which was attended by more than 200,000 people.
Sixth Street Community Center Sixth Street Community Center (SSCC) offers robust community programs to Lower East Side community members of all ages. Their programs and organizing campaigns focus on advancing climate justice while fighting environmental racism, urban sustainability, food justice, and food access.