The students who gathered on the steps of Owen Sound's city hall last Friday, and will be on those steps every Friday at 2:15 until at least the end of the school year, want you to take 1 minute and thirty seconds to watch this video.

Ole Benstem and Kassidy Eastman, two of the Owen Sound District Secondary School (OSDSS) students who are helping to organize the local FridaysforFuture, are looking for immediate action on climate change.  Their weekly actions are to raise awareness – to inform, not to shame or blame.  The actions are entirely student led, because to paraphrase the Parkland school shooting survivors who have inspired young activists all over the world "when the leaders act like kids, the kids need to act as leaders". They invite their fellow secondary students at OSDSS and St. Mary's to join them, and they have had interest from local elementary students as well.
“No one is pressured to participate,” Kassidy assured me, “And no one is judged if they choose not to participate. It is an individual decision.”

Greta Thunberg had just begun her school-hours strike outside the Swedish parliament when Ole Benstem left Hildesheim in north-western Germany for an exchange in Owen Sound last August. He heard more of the spreading student movement from Europe through the winter, and intends to be active in organizing for climate action when he returns home, but he decided not to wait.  "We have to act now or we will pass the point of no return," he says, noting that current predictions are that we will overshoot even the targets of the Paris agreement by 3 or even 4 degrees, with catastrophic results.

Kassidy is completing a “victory lap” at OSDSS and plans to attend Niagara College to become a Child and Youth Worker. She is interested in working with children with autism and wants them to have the environment and opportunities she has had. "I want children to be able to go to camp and play in the sunshine or in the snow. This is about their future."

The students encourage everyone to examine their own lives – to change everyday actions at a reasonable pace. “If kids in elementary school grow up with...metal straws, for example,” says Kassidy, “They will just keep those sustainable practices.” She can hear her own mother's words in her ear, telling Kassidy that her children and grandchildren would have to live with the consequences of her actions today.  "Imagine your children not being able to breathe properly, or your grandchildren never seeing a white winter."

“In capitalism, we talk with our money,” Ole says, so we can change the direction of corporations somewhat with what we buy. “But we need to let the government know that we care,” he adds, “We need to tell government and industry with petitions and our votes.”Spreading the word, writing letters to your representatives at city hall, your MPP and MP, are all important to making change," the students say. Ole says some effects will be indirect, but have political consequences.  As climate change brings more extreme weather events and submerges coastal areas, "one billion or more people will become refugees, and they will need places to migrate."

The students themselves plan a deputation to Owen Sound city council this spring, and Ole will be participating in a Youth Roundtable on the Environment on May 8 in Owen Sound as part of a larger regional environmental event that day.

When asked what they would say to people accusing them of simply “skipping school”, Ole said the timing was intentional to drive home the urgency the students feel. He grins when he asks “How many strikes have been won at night?” but is absolutely serious that the students are willing to put their own education at risk because their future depends on it.
Ole still has two more years of high school left when he returns to Germany where he intends to study physics at university, but he says this strike is not related to his future employment but to the future itself.

To keep up with the local Fridays for Future activities: Instagram @fridaysforfuture.owen.sound.  To contact them, email [email protected].