Today a group of around 50 students from Des Moines, Iowa, schools gathered at the state capitol building, striking for climate change. A large number of the students spoke about how urgent climate change is, sharing stories of how this affects them personally.

One student asked why people of faith didn’t speak up against things that cause climate problems. I was tempted to say something, but this was the youth’s event, and I didn’t have much of a response about people of faith, in general, so I didn’t.

The moving part occurred when the students staged a “die-in”, representing the probable extinction of life on earth if immediate action doesn’t happen. Everyone was asked to set their cell phone alarms to 11:11 am, representing we only have 11 years to turn things around. The reason the students are laughing in this video is because of the vibration of their phones when the alarm went off.

It was interesting to watch the reactions of the crowds of kids who came to the Capitol on the school buses, not related to the climate strike.