A Demand For Action - Best Photos

Last Friday, NOCO residents gathered together in Old Town Square to demand for more climate action in Northern Colorado

A young girl eagerly holds her sign up at the Northern Colorado Climate Strike. Throughout the strike, she continued to proudly hold up her sign. Young people are especially critical to the new wave of climate activism, as they're the most affected, and the most emotionally vulnerable. The actions of the world's youth have lead to more climate awareness, and even political changes.

Here, an elderly native american couple shelters under a tree. They continued to play music throughout the strike, drumming along to the songs and chants of those speaking. The strike was largely focused around indigenous peoples. It opened with a land acknowledgement done by freshman at CSU, Esperanza, who stated that we must remember who's land we're on. The fight of protection for indigenous people, and their land is one at the basis of the climate action, indigenous people have been fighting for environmental protection for years.

CSU freshman, Esperanza, speaks at the NOCO climate strike. Esperanza uses spoken word poetry on climate change to move her audiences. This poem, done for her baby cousin, is especially powerful and moving.

Another freshman at CSU, Ehret Nottingham, speaks about the future of climate action in Northern Colorado. His center - that this strike is not just the beginning. Nottingham, and other event organizers are planning on hosting strikes every Friday - much like Greta Thunberg's movement, Fridays For Our Future.

Audiences listen raptly to one of the speeches. In this photo, the full diversity of the climate strike can be seen, the whole strike was centered around not only the action of young people, and of indigenous people, but of everyone. The strike showed incredible diversity, from the smallest toddlers, to elders of the Fort Collins community

Hundreds gathered in Old Town Square to support and create climate action. The total wound up being over 650 total people. Even politician, John Kefalas showed, and was adressed by one of the organizers, who said that "we are watching you," the speaker reminded Kefalas that "we demand climate action now."

A reporter talks to Sunrise Fort Collins members Sutton Kreudtzfeldt, and Lindsey Hanna about their work at the strike. Both are volunteering at a sign-building, and trade in stand where people could create signs, grab a sign that was pre-made at the September 20th Art Build, or drop their sign off to be traded. They also helped with voter registration, and raised awareness about the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate change activist movement.

The sign building stand was a huge success - there wasn't a time when people crowed around to draw, color, or add to their own signs. The table also served as voter registration, Sunrise and other organization information, and as a trade-in/drop-off for signs.

Three girls hold up their signs, smiling eagerly just moments before the strike started. Despite the rain, many showed up to the strike, dressed in raincoats and warm weather gear. The strike started perfectly on time, as the rainstorm ended, leaving behind just a few cloudy skies.

As the strike neared its end, the protesters continued to watch in rapt attention. The sun had since set, and the lights in Old Town Square turned on, illuminating the stage and the square in gorgeous shades of yellow. Despite the fact that the strike was ending, the movement reminds audiences that this is not the beginning. The following strike occured on October 4th at the Oval, and the movement will continue to hold weekly Friday strikes.

REFLECT:

I wanted to capture both the hope and the disparity caused by the climate crisis. I wanted to be able to see that sort of frustration/optimistic mix that consumes a lot of Americans at this time. I decided on this because when organizing this, we had arranged for "photographers" to come, but I wanted to take some photos for myself because I love photography, so I asked if it would be alright for me to document the strike. I got lucky, and I got to document! A lot of the photos I wound up taking didn't really capture the despair of the climate crisis, but instead the hope and the positivity that really resonated from the strike. I was honestly really impressed with some of the results, and while I think a lot of the photos could always be improved, I'm okay with the results :).