Demanding Climate Action
Kawika Pegram
Lead organizer, Hawai‘i Youth Climate Strikes
“Protests are visual, they energize people fast, they aren’t impossible to organize, they get people ready to mobilize on the issue, and then you’re able put pressure on public officials,” says eighteen-year-old Kawika Pegram, lead organizer for the Hawai‘i Youth Climate Strike (HYCS) and senior at Waipahu High School. “We want young people to have their voices heard on climate change, an issue that’s going to predominantly affect them, and we want them to demand action.” In September 2019, nearly a dozen climate marches led by HYCS were held across the islands, attracting roughly 3,000 people statewide, according to Pegram.
Photos courtesy of (clock-wise from top left) TNC/Ethan Welty, Anthony Aricayos, Li Yang on Unsplash, Rafael Bergstrom, Philip Racsa