About 50 local activists faced the cold Friday morning for a climate strike at Howard Park in South Bend. It was meant to invoke a sense of urgency among city officials about the climate change crisis.
Activists sang songs about climate change and spoke about their own experiences before marching from Howard Park to the County-City Building.
They presented letters to the secretary at Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s office with the hope of putting pressure on city officials to take a more aggressive approach when fighting climate change.
South Bend released a climate action plan a few weeks ago with the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. But activist leader Garrett Blad said 2050 isn’t soon enough.
“It’s really sad that it takes kids skipping school, organizing, to push our leaders to take this crisis seriously. This whole place we live in, the City of South Bend, is at stake in this crisis if we don’t take this seriously.”
City spokesperson Mark Bode said in a statement that “Under Mayor Pete Buttigieg's leadership, the City of South Bend has prioritized sustainability and action to address the climate change crisis.”
Contact Annacaroline at acaruso@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at @AnnacarolineC16
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