ADDSON COUNTY — On Friday students and workers in thousands of places around the world will press pause on their everyday lives and gather together to protest climate injustice.
In Vermont dozens of events are scheduled tomorrow and subsequent days as part of a week of activism.
“On September 20, just ahead of the UN Global Climate Action Summit in New York City, we will be walking out of our schools, our workplaces and our homes to show our leaders that we will accept nothing less than an immediate transition to clean energy, green jobs and a just and healthy planet,” wrote state organizers on their website, vermontclimatestrike.org. “United with people at hundreds of climate strikes around the world, we will demand action!”
Vermont organizers have listed four demands:
•Comprehensive and immediate solutions to the climate crisis — like the Green New Deal — that are rooted in the respect for and dignity of all people.
•Support for just policies at every level of governance that invest in our communities and transition rapidly to a clean and renewable-energy economy for all, with livable wages and union jobs.
•A commitment to keeping fossil fuels in the ground and no new fossil fuel projects.
•A just and inclusive movement that centers frontline communities most affected by our world of intersecting and overlapping oppressions.
Though much of the state’s activity will center around Burlington, students at all three Addison County high schools have organized or plan to attend local events.

MIDDLEBURY
At 9:45 a.m. on Friday, local residents will join students from Middlebury College, Middlebury Union High School and elsewhere for a climate rally at College Park, across from Shafer’s in Middlebury.
“We are striking for an end to the age of fossil fuels,” wrote rally organizers on their Facebook event page. “We are striking for a just transition to renewable energy; we are striking for just migration policies and open borders, especially in the face of climate catastrophe; we are striking for community based solutions; we are striking for an end to an extractive economy that values profit over human beings — we are striking for climate justice.”
After the rally ends at 11 a.m., some students and community members plan to carpool to Burlington to join in the Vermont Climate Strike Rally that will be held there at noon.
For more information about the Middlebury event, contact Divya Gudur at [email protected].

VERGENNES
In Vergennes, students Marlie Hunt and Alder Donovan have organized an entire school day of activities, many of which have a climate justice theme.
Between 8:50 and 10:55 a.m. students will hold two climate justice workshops.
After lunch the school will hold its annual Peace One Day rally on the soccer field, which will feature art, music, speeches and pie, Hunt told the Independent.
Then, at 3:15 p.m., in a non-school-sponsored event, students have planned a “die-in” on the Vergennes city green, to protest for climate action.
Joining them for some of these events will be members of the Environmental Action Group and other students from Mount Abraham Union High School.
The Independent plans to cover events in both Middlebury and Vergennes.

BURLINGTON
The Burlington Climate Rally will be held at noon in City Hall Park.
A number of lead-up events are also scheduled:
•A march from the University of Vermont to City Hall (11 a.m. to noon).
•The Champlain College Student Strike and march to City Hall (11:30 a.m.).
•A strike led by Burton Snowboards employees, and a march down Pine Street to City Hall Park (11 a.m.)
•Ben & Jerry’s employees will also march to City Hall (time not listed).
The Main Street Landing Film House will also hold a school walkout teach-in from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Dozens of other events are scheduled around the state, not only for Friday, but throughout next week. For more a complete listing, visit vermontclimatestrike.org.
Reach Christopher Ross at [email protected].