On Oct. 21, 2021, five individuals between the ages of 18-26 years old – Abby Leedy, Paul Campion, Eva Govea, Julie Paramo, and Kidus Girma – sat outside the White House and began a hunger strike for climate change.

Their strike, which began on October 20, 2021, is still ongoing as of November 4, 2021. Leedy expressed, “I think we are here indefinitely, as long as it takes.” They vouched to not eat until their message reaches President Joe Biden.

They began their strike collaborating with the Sunrise Movement, a “youth movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.”

This strike was started to make sure that Joe Biden keeps his promise to move forward with the “Clean Energy Plan,” and the “civilian conservation corps, which is a program to get hundreds of thousands of Americans good jobs working to solve the climate crisis.”

As Leedy explained, “What’s happening right now is, Joe Manchin is this senator who is completely bought off by fossil fuels and he is trying to get these climate provisions cut from this big bill.”

Leedy continued, “Biden is not standing up, and is not fighting for the public. He is not doing everything in his power to keep his promises. We are hunger striking until the bill gets passed with the climate.”

Their hope is for people “…to see how extremely serious climate change is and feel empowered to take action.” These young adults believe that a world without the major threat of climate change is a possibility. Leedy comments, “One day you are just living your life and the next you’re on a hunger strike.”

Out of 23 people, 48% said they didn’t know about the strikers. Leedy stated, “Every young person in America, when we take collective action together, we can make the government do what we want, we are bigger than them.”

These young activists need support to fight back on climate change! To help the Sunrise Movement follow their Instagram @hungerstrike4climatejustice, and their twitter @hungerstr1ke or go to their web page, https://www.sunrisemovement.org/ and donate or join a movement, such as fasting or going down to support them in Washington DC.