In their last semester as Steamboat Springs High School seniors and Eco-Club co-leaders, Thomas Cooper and Margaux Shea are speaking out for faster climate action.

The two have taken part in commenting at City Council and congressional town hall meetings and will host the fifth official school climate strike later this week.

“Locally, our message is ‘we need to act as fast as possible to preserve what makes our community so special,'” Cooper said. “We are a global climate hotspot with almost twice the risk of warming as the rest of the world on average.”

The students will host a Fridays for Future Climate Strike on Friday, April 14, leading a group out of school at 11 a.m. and walking to the downtown courthouse lawn at Fifth Street and Lincoln Avenue. Activities at the rally will range from calling elected officials to signing up to vote. Speeches from student and local leaders will begin at 11:45 a.m., and students plan to return to school at 1:30 p.m.

Active since July 2019, the Steamboat Springs Chapter of Fridays for Future is one of 43 chapters in Colorado, 292 across the U.S. and 4,143 across the world, according to the Fridays for Future map team.

The Steamboat student activists say “climate change is the most important issue of our time,” and Friday’s strike aims to urge both local and national leaders to take action.

“In Colorado, we are already feeling the effects of the climate crisis through raging wildfires, droughts, inconsistent snow conditions and more. To combat an issue of this scale, we need comprehensive climate action,” the students noted. “We acknowledge that progress is already being made but understand that these actions are not enough to reverse the effects of the climate crisis.”

The goals for Friday’s strike include fostering long-lasting political involvement among attendees and calling legislators in support of environmental bills that are not receiving a lot of public attention. The input to legislators on the national level supports the Protect the West Act and electric vehicles as part of the Clean Air Act, and combats the weakening of the Endangered Species Act. The group is supporting Colorado bills that restrict Neonicotinoids pesticides harmful to bee populations, encourage electric vehicle charging stations, support increased nuclear infrastructure and support carbon management pathways.

Both Cooper and Shea provided heartfelt comments during an April 6 town hall featuring U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, as the students complimented the congressman on his efforts while pushing for more climate action faster.

The student leaders are strong supporters of the Routt County Climate Action Plan, which was adopted by all municipalities across the county in summer 2021. The students stress that all of the plan’s recommended strategies should be fully implemented.

“We need firstly to follow it as fast as possible and its recommendations, and use the CAP as a jumping off point for further climate action,” Cooper said. “It’s not enough to half do these strategies.”

“This is not an optional plan,” Shea said. “We just need to move forward.”

Earlier this school year, Eco-Club members sent some 20 letters to City Council to encourage renewable energy use for the city hall and fire station downtown complex. Club members said they were disappointed in the need for significant public outcry when municipal leaders should be making decisions aligned with the Climate Action Plan.

During an April 4 presentation on the plan’s timeline to City Council, Eco-Club members senior Trevor Harms, junior Amelie Wild and freshman Shea Spear encouraged stronger council action.

“I want to say thank you for everything you are doing for the Climate Action Plan, but we want to see more because this is our future. And it matters a lot to us,” Spear commented. “So just please continue to work hard.”

“We released the Climate Action Plan two years ago, and we are still having these conversations on how we are going to implement it … instead of moving forward,” Wild said. “I urge you to work with speed and dignity when you are doing these things because we really need to work in a timely manner so we can fight this.”

“I really want to encourage you to be proactive even if you don’t have those perfect recommendations,” Cooper said. “Please remember that while the climate crisis is visible now, it is going to have the greatest impact on us (youth). We’re not the people who are making these decisions, but please consider our opinions in these decisions. Please realize how much is at stake for us.”

For information on the Fridays for Future event, contact steamboat.springs@fridaysforfutureusa.org or 970-819-7175.