With the recent ending of the Utah legislative session earlier this month, there has been a lot of focus around the worsening effects of the climate crisis being felt by Utahns everywhere.

During the Utah legislative session, Senate Bill 277 was passed, which will provide funding for agricultural water use and water conservation measures. However, proposed emergency measures to get water back to the Great Salt Lake were pushed back, with legislatures stating the reason is due to the extreme levels of snow Utah has experienced.

Issues regarding the climate crisis affecting Utah, whether addressed by the recent bills or not, are exactly what protestors are hoping to highlight to the public and politicians alike with the recent Global Climate Strike.

The Global Climate Strike is an annual, worldwide organized protest to bring awareness to the ongoing climate crisis. The movement is led by Fridays for Future, a youth-led organization meant to encourage students and youth all over the world to take charge and make their voices heard.

One of Weber State’s own students, Raquel Juarez, was responsible for organizing Utah’s part of the Global Climate Strike alongside the Utah chapter of Fridays for Future.

“I’ve been organizing since 2018, but more so as I’ve learned how to organize and facilitate meetings, really just through what my mentors have taught me, I’ve been able to actually fulfill facilitating and organizing and really it’s because there’s not a lot of other youth organizers who know how to do this,” Juarez said. “So it’s kinda been like breaking through my own barriers as an individual young person learning how to organize. That’s why I organize this — because I know how to do it now over the years I’ve learned.”

The strike took place on March 3, with marches taking place at Washington Square Park, JP Morgan Chase Bank and the Utah State Capitol.

Once the march ended on the steps of the state capitol, student activists and speakers came together on the steps of the capitol to make their voices heard by the Utah politicians, who were inside during the last day of the legislative session.

“Student-run protests allow young people to find their voice,” Juarez said. “It allows young people to have motivation towards something that they are inspired by and hopefully can shape what their future endeavors will be, including what they’re going to study in college. So these are all important things and facets that being in a strike and becoming an activist shapes for when it gives one a purpose.”