Dear CLU community,

On Friday, September 20, millions of youth – including those from indigenous and frontline communities in over 100 countries – will participate in the Global Climate Strike. They will walk out of school and peacefully demand a just and livable future for all. Millions of adults will join them in solidarity, making this the largest youth-led protest in history against the business-as-usual approach of governments and corporations in the face of global climate breakdown. More than 500 events are planned in the United States alone.

California Lutheran University’s mission is to educate leaders for a global society who are strong in character and judgment, confident in their identity and vocation, and committed to service and justice. There is no more obvious, meaningful, or productive way to carry out the university’s mission at the start of this semester than to participate in the Global Climate Strike. Climate-related disasters often strike the people least responsible for the environmental status quo first, and hardest, and a true commitment to justice requires us to step up. Let’s show our care for students at, and far beyond, CLU; and let’s communicate to young people everywhere that we take the climate emergency seriously and are educating leaders to address it.

So, what do we do? If your situation allows on September 20, don’t go to class, don’t go to work, attend the Conejo Climate Strike at noon in Thousand Oaks or an event close to your home, and speak out about why you’re disrupting business as usual. To find Global Climate Strike events, scroll down to the map at https://globalclimatestrike.net.

Will CLU be relevant in relation to the most important issue of our time? You decide.

Yours, Vic Thasiah

Associate Professor and Chair Religion Department

*Letter to the Editor published as submitted, this is an original copy not edited by The Echo staff.