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      students

      Students carry a white banner against a green lawn.

      Hundreds of Students Launch May of Occupations to End Fossil Fuels

      Activists hope the rest of society will join in resisting business-as-usual and the fossil economy's death drive, the way the people of France joined the students who organized in May 1968.

      Olivia Rosane
      May 02, 2023

      Hundreds of students occupied their schools and universities on Tuesday as part of a global movement to disrupt educational institutions this May and push for an end to the fossil fuel economy.

      The activists—mobilizing under the banner of End Fossil: Occupy!— say they take inspiration from the Parisian students of May 1968, whose protests led to one of the largest general strikes in French history.

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      Climate Emergency
      A pink sign reading, "Listen to students. #EndFossil."

      The Return of May '68: Students Launch Occupations for Climate Justice

      Together, we will rise up, disrupt normalcy, and fight in our schools and universities for a fossil-free world.

      End Fossil: Occupy!
      May 02, 2023

      Sleeping bags, backpacks, shoes, and dishes from last night's dinner are scattered around the halls. It has been three days since students at Liceu Camões, a high school in central Lisbon, began their occupation, using time away from class to educate each other on what really matters in a planet on fire: climate justice, revolutionary politics, and movement strategy. Grassroots teach-ins are interwoven with drums and chants that interrupt those remaining in class. "Pelo clima. Unidos. Ocupamos. Resistimos!" (For the climate. United. We occupy. We resist!) they shouted.

      Still, the students felt like they weren't being heard. And rather than sit back and let the occupation slowly fizzle out, they took matters into their own hands.

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      Opinion
      Climate Emergency
      Teenager sending email from smart phone in her bed

      Enlisting Students in the Fight for Healthier Online Public Spaces

      What might it look like if students could learn about their digital spaces while at the same time working to improve them?

      Leslie Stebbins
      Mar 22, 2023

      There has been a sea change in how we view our broken digital public spaces. We now understand that the intentional design practices of large tech companies are amplifying misinformation and vitriol to keep us engaged and online to increase their advertising revenues. A Seattle school district recently filed suit against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok and Google claiming that they deliberately addict children to their platforms and serve up harmful content and misinformation that encourages anxiety, depression, eating disorders, cyberbullying and self-harm. Hundreds of families have also filed individual lawsuits alleging harm. Legal analysts are comparing these early cases to ones filed against Big Tobacco, and more recently, Big Pharma.

      For the last four years, I have been steeped in research — across many disciplines —focusing on solutions to our information crisis. I had worried that our information crisis might be hopeless and that I was wasting my time. Instead, I found that we now have many tools and design strategies already at hand that can repair our broken online spaces without jeopardizing free speech. The Aspen Institute recently concluded that possibly the biggest lie being told about misinformation and toxic behavior online is that the crisis is uncontainable. It is not. We need to require social media platforms to change their underlying design that monetizes engagement. We need to demand that they work harder to prioritize the public good.

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