ABOUT HOUSTON YOUTH CLIMATE STRIKE


MISSION STATEMENT
Houston Youth Climate Strike is a youth-led organization in the Greater Houston Area dedicated to calling for action on the climate crisis through direct action, education, outreach, and lobbying, while simultaneously promoting diversity and equality within itself and the greater climate movement. HYCS harnesses the local youth climate narrative to reject and dismantle the normalization and perpetuation of climate change and systemic oppression, while also empowering and centering marginalized, and underrepresented students and communities.
WHO WE ARE
&
WHY WE FORMED

WHO WE ARE & WHY WE FORMED
As the school strike movement was gaining traction around the globe, a small group of teenagers who recognized the need for climate action in Houston, Texas came together to plan a climate strike in September of 2019. These youth had grown up in a city dramatically affected by climate change, whether it be through extreme drought, harmful air pollution, or frequent flooding. Together they channeled these experiences into action, and joined millions of others around the globe on September 20, 2019, to strike at Houston City Hall. It was the largest day of global climate action in history, and over 1,200 people from all over the city came together to call for climate action in Houston. The strike took place the day after Tropical Storm Imelda hit Houston, and it was with a renewed sense of urgency that this group of youth came together in the wake of the strike and began planning for more long term action. This initial group of a dozen students quickly turned into a team of over 80 high school and college students located around the Greater Houston Area. Since our formation, we have officially become a 501(c)(3) organization incorporated into March On, and have continued to organize and advocate for climate action at a local, state, and national level.
Climate strikes are a part of an entirely youth-led international campaign demanding to set the narrative on climate action on a policy level. The success of our movement is visible across the globe: politicians at various levels nationally and internationally are finally beginning to talk about the climate crisis and the necessary solutions. But climate action is still slow moving; in order to successfully ensure that, through international cooperation, federal policy, and local initiatives like Houston’s Climate Action Plan, humans reduce emissions by 45% by 2030 and limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, we must keep striking. Internationally, Global Climate Strike leadership has called for adults, organizations, and political leaders and candidates to demonstrate their commitment to the future of our planet and our youth by striking with us.

WHY WE STRIKE
HYCS ARCHIVE
to learn more about our past and current actions and about us as an organization, feel free to peruse our newsletters!