Courtney Hill

LBST 2301

November 9, 2019

Fieldwork Write-Up

To complete this fieldwork, I attended a climate strike held on November 8, 2019 from

12 to 2pm in front of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Government Center. The strike was put together

by Mary Ellis Stevens, a 14-year old climate activist, along with several other climate activists.

Mary Ellis invited Greta Thunberg to speak at the event. I wish to become more environmentally

sustainable in my daily life so I believed this event would help me find logical ways for me to do

so. Throughout my time at the event, I observed the actions of the participants; as well as briefly

interviewed some of the attendees. I focused on the information the speakers gave to the crowd.

The main research question I asked was, “How is this climate strike accomplishing their

sustainability goals?” A variety of solutions were expressed, from the speakers and the crowd,

from going vegan to taking public transportation to a carbon tax.

I used a combination of participant observations and small interviews to conduct my

research at the event. I first arrived a little before 11am and walked around the square, observing

the few tables already set up. I spoke with a representative from the Sunrise Movement. He

explained the purpose of the organization was to make climate change an urgent priority across

the US, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives in politics, and finally to elect

leaders who will stand up for the health and wellbeing of people and fight climate change. They

intend to do this by participating in climate strikes, calling and speaking with representatives that

can make change, and recruiting people in the fight against climate change. Next, I spoke with
two people who were selling buttons with various slogans about climate change. They made all

of the buttons by hand, reducing emissions from having them mass produced. I took note of

several signs the crowd was carrying, with slogans like, “There Is No Planet B”. Several of the

signs depicted the Earth on fire, or quotes from Greta Thunberg. One gentleman had a sign about

Duke Energy and I spoke with him. We discussed Duke Energy’s claim of upping their

renewable energy by 50 percent and he expressed to me that currently their renewable energy is

approximately six percent, so if doubled, it would become around 12 percent, still extremely low.

In attendance were many children, elementary to high school aged, several had skipped school to

come to the climate strike. From what I saw, a decent amount of people in attendance appeared

to be white and middle class. Various speakers addressed the fact that climate change

disproportionately affects people of color, indigenous people, and lower class people. One

speaker spoke about how these people could not afford to miss one day of work to attend the

strikes, so their voices are not heard as much.

The speakers ranged from second grade students to a North Carolina Representative.

Dimple Ajmera, a Charlotte city councilwoman, spoke about her chairing the environmental

committee. She explained that the council unanimously passed a resolution to meet the Paris

Climate Agreement goals, regardless of what Washington D.C. does. She explained that climate

change is not a partisan issue, there is no blue or red water, no blue or red air, only clean air and

water and every person deserves access to them. She urged the crowd to speak up if the city does

not follow their Strategic Energy Action Plan goals, Charlotte’s first framework to transition to a

low carbon future. She also urged the crowd to reach out to organizations fighting climate

change, like Clean Air Charlotte and to get involved; as well as to turn out when elections are
happening. The only way to enact laws to push the world into a green future is to elect the

officials that will make that happen. Several students spoke about how climate change has

affected them and what they are doing to combat it, many of them implored people to strike.

North Carolina Representative John Autry spoke about his initiatives in getting Charlotte to

become a more environmentally friendly city. He created the first Green Caucus in the North

Carolina General Assembly. He said that, “the importance of climate change cannot be

overstated”. Mary Ellis Stevens spoke about her dreams of Charlotte being a zero carbon

emission city. When Greta took the stage, she addressed the indigenous lands that had been

colonized where we stood, the ineffective governments doing almost nothing to curtail fossil fuel

emissions, and lastly, the how people striking across the world gave her hope for a cleaner future.

The information I heard at the strike related directly to the Sustainable Source Workbook.

Firstly, the textbook is focused around environmentalism and stopping climate change. More

specifically, the texts discusses the issue of social justice. It states that environmental crises

exacerbate social problems (Sustainable). Several speakers mentioned this, people of color, low

income areas and indigenous peoples are being displaced and destabilized the most from the

effects of climate change. Mary Ellis Stevens stated that people of color are 20% more likely to

have asthma because of air pollution in lower socioeconomic regions, which are home to many

families of color. Habitat destruction occurs more often in low socioeconomic environments like

India, the Philippines, and islands in the Pacific (Sustainable). Part four of the textbook discusses

indigenous rights. Mary Ellis and Greta talked about how disadvantaged indigenous people are;

thousands of indigenous people go missing and/or are murdered with little to no media coverage.
The United States failed to ratify the United Nation’s Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous

Peoples in September 2007, continuing the cycle of racism throughout the country (Sustainable).

The climate strike was effective in gaining media attention, calling more people to

acknowledge climate change. The event focused on calling people to action to help stop climate

change and explained how it has affected millions so far. The testimonies from some of the

speakers were moving and emotional. The use of pathos in this movement is important and I

believe that this event showcased that. Becoming vegan, purchasing an electric vehicle,

contacting a representative, or participating in a strike are just a few of the ways someone can

become more sustainable and act to stop climate change. Although I believe the strike was

effective, only time will tell if governments actually listen to activists and enact change. In the

future, I will be attending and participating in more climate strikes because this event further

showed me how imperative it is for the population get involved to stop climate change. 

 Bibliography

Sustainable World Coalition. Sustainable Source Workbook. Sustainable World Coalition, 2014.