Students gather in Missoula, across the globe to bring attention to the climate crisis

Kevin Moriarty

(Missoula Current) Gabbie Byers stood in front of the University of Montana’s clocktower on Friday talking with anyone who would engage about climate change.

Byers, along with other students, are attempting to bring awareness and a sense of urgency to the climate crisis by holding a strike. And while Byers holds a strike for the climate crisis every Friday on campus, this Friday was different.

Byers is a member of the international student group Fridays For Future, and this Friday students in countries across the globe held strikes demanding lawmakers to take action on climate change.

The Fridays For Future movement began in 2018 when Swedish Environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who was 15 at the time, skipped school for three weeks strait to protest the lack of action being taken to address climate change in her home country.

Since then, Thunberg has become a globally recognized figure in the fight against climate change.

Byers says she was inspired by Thunberg and started the local Fridays For Future chapter in Missoula herself when she was in high school.

Now a junior at UM, Byers is doing what she can to keep climate change front and center in the minds of students and staff at the university.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges humanity has ever faced,” said Byers.

The Fridays For Future movement is not only for university students. Students from high schools across Missoula also gathered at the courthouse on Friday afternoon.

They said that while they are taught about climate change in science class, they don’t feel like there is actually enough being done to combat the crisis.