On Friday, the Montgomery County Green New Deal Internship Program and other climate reform groups throughout the country will participate in a call to action under leading climate change activist Greta Thunberg.

Thunberg wants climate change groups to come together for a walkout from their schools to demonstrate the need for a Green New Deal reform.  MCPS students do not have to participate in the walk-out of schools to support the call to action. “We can comply with the regulations and work with administration instead of against it,” senior Hasham Khan said. 

Beyond mobilization, interns plan to gather students within MCPS schools and move forward. Treasurer for the National Institue for Peer Support Jim Driscoll urges Walter Johnson, Walt Whitman, Clarksburg, Seneca Valley, Watkins Mill, Springbrook, and Blair to have a lunch meeting about the Montgomery County GND.

There will be an announcement about an interest meeting to discuss the program and talk about future plans for the GND. Driscoll will be visiting MCPS high schools to give an entrance speech about the GND. Schools will also soon be able to create their own GND chapter as an official branch of the Montgomery County GND.

“I wouldn’t want to say that the climate crisis is inadvertently one of the biggest crises. It affects all people, regardless of any bias because this is our earth and there’s no escaping it,” Khan said.

On August 26, a rally was led by Montgomery County students to demonstrate the urgency for a Green New Deal reform. The gathering was not directly affiliated with Thunberg but it was organized by the Montgomery County GND.  Students gathered in Rockville to march with posters and banners, to express their passion to take action on climate change.

The climate crisis “is also interconnected with a bunch of other problems, other systemic problems,” Khan added. “It unfortunately affects [black and indigenous] people in the worst way, and they’re the ones most affected by it.”