Stand Up For Climate Change Action, Energy and Equity in Hartford was the latest in a new wave of international protests about the government’s role in helping combat climate change. Millions of people have taken to the streets in a call for action, and they will spark change.

A report from scientists on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in October 2018 says we only have 12 years to make drastic changes before the damage humans inflict on the planet is irreversible.

Although the findings were written about in every newspaper and broadcasted on every station, there was little action taken by governmental bodies to jumpstart progressive ways to reverse the damages already inflicted.

A few months earlier in August, Greta Thunberg, a now 16-year-old Swedish activist, protested alone outside Sweden’s parliament building instead of attending school. She vowed to stand there with her sign that read,“Skolstrejk för klimatet,” (School strike for the climate), until the start of the Swedish general elections.

She gained international recognition when she was invited to speak at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Katowice, Poland in December 2018. She famously said, “You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to us children.”

Her voice inspired movements, protests and action around the world and most notably on March 15 when citizens in over 110 countries marched for the cause. Since then, there have been frequent follow up demonstrations like the one in Hartford this past Sunday.

Marches and protests during the 1960’s and 1970’s against the Vietnam War seemed to fall upon deaf ears in the government at the time. Now, looking back, we can thank those mothers, students and young hippies for things like being able to vote when one turns 18 instead of 21.

Comparing the work of present day environmental activists to the bravery of those in the 60’s may seem like a stretch, but the fighting mentally they have unifies them.

Both prove that when enough people at the bottom make noise, the people at the top can’t ignore them.

I believe the ball is already rolling when it comes to lawful reform being made in direct response to the action of the people. Towns all over Connecticut, most recently Norwich this past Wednesday, have begun banning plastic bags.

Tiny local changes will inspire statewide changes. Soon, the entire country will ban damaging products like plastic bags and plastic straws. And when they do, we, and especially our planet, can thank the ones who marched in the street.

“We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in the past, and you will ignore us again. We have run out of excuses, and we are running out of time,” Thunberg said at the Convention on Climate Change. “The real power belongs to the people.”