A week after staging a sit-in at the Capitol Hill office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to demand that the Democratic Party throw its support behind a Green New Deal, young climate leaders are planning to flood congressional offices nationwide on Tuesday to continue pressuring lawmakers to take the bold climate steps science says are necessary to avoid planetary catastrophe.
"Youth are taking action in their districts to pressure federal policymakers to back the only rational response to the climate crisis—a massive economic mobilization over the next decade to get our country off fossil fuels."
—350.org"We have the momentum to make a Green New Deal real, but we need a critical mass of congresspeople to support the proposal," declared the youth-led Sunrise Movement, which—in addition to demonstrating inside Pelosi's office—stormed the D.C. office of Rep. Frank Pallone (N.J.) last week calling a Green New Deal humanity's "best chance at survival."
The central demand of Tuesday's "Green New Deal Day of Action" is for Democratic lawmakers to champion Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-N.Y.) proposed Green New Deal select committee and "create a climate plan in line with what science and justice demand."
As of this writing, more than 300 events have been planned across the country. Click the map below to find an event near you:
"Through their efforts, 10 congresspeople now back Ocasio-Cortez' Select Committee for a Green New Deal," 350.org, which helped organized Tuesday's planned demonstrations, said in a statement. "Now, youth are taking action in their districts to pressure federal policymakers to back the only rational response to the climate crisis—a massive economic mobilization over the next decade to get our country off fossil fuels."
The members of Congress who have already vowed to support the Select Committee for a Green New Deal are depicted in the graphic below, courtesy of the Sunrise Movement:
