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Students Skip School To Call For Climate Action

A few dozen Des Moines area students took time out of school Friday to rally for political action on climate change. The Youth Climate Strike outside the Iowa Capitol was part of a day of demonstrations across the country.

Students spoke in turn encouraging their peers to take personal actions to reduce carbon emissions, such as reducing waste. They also called for changes in federal policy including declaring a national climate emergency.

“We are the last generation that can stop climate change, but we’re the first generation really being truly affected by it,” said Lydia Pesek, an eighth grade student at South View Middle School in Ankeny and one of the rally organizers. “So the people in power and the generations above us need to act now because our lives are on the line.”

Benton Renaud, a junior at Ankeny Centennial High, said changes in extreme weather are taking a toll on his family’s farm in northern Iowa.

“They keep having to push the field times back,” Renaud said. “It’s just constantly is destroying our croplands and actually affects my family with revenue.”

Many of the students who spoke at the rally said they are motivated by a United Nations climate committee report from October 2018. It predicts climate change will become practically irreversible after the year 2030 without a 45 percent reduction in carbon emissions.

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Grant Gerlock is a reporter covering Des Moines and central Iowa