Local youths, others participate in Global Climate Strike on both ends of Ventura County

Climate change activists on both ends of Ventura County, including high school and college students who skipped classes, participated in Global Climate Strike demonstrations Friday.

They, and millions of other demonstrators around the globe, called on governments to take immediate action to combat climate change. 

“Obviously, we’ve seen a lot of inaction in the last few years regarding climate change,” said Xander Beutel, 17, a senior at Newbury Park High School.

He was part of a loud, energetic demonstration by a few hundred people at all four corners of Thousand Oaks and Westlake boulevards in Thousand Oaks.

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“So we definitely see a need for immediate action,” said Beutel, who plans to study environmental science in college.

The worldwide demonstrations, inspired by 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who participated in Friday’s New York City protest, came three days before a United Nations Summit on Climate Change.

The Thousand Oaks demonstrators held signs such as “We Need a Green New Deal” and “Save Our Future,” and chanted slogans, including, “Hey, hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go” and “Climate change is not a hoax.”

Passing motorists frequently blew their horns in support of the demonstrators, who cheered in return.

The protesters included people of all ages.

Beth Merrill, 79, of Newbury Park, who identified herself as a retired climate scientist, said, “I have to laugh at the people who are saying, ‘Save the planet.’ Because we have to save the life of the planet.

“The planet is still going to be here after all the life is gone. Probably the only thing that will be left will be the bacteria, and then we’ll start all over again. So it’s ‘heal the planet.’”

‘A climate of urgency’

On the other side of the county, meanwhile, outdoor sport clothing retailer Patagonia, which markets itself as “the activist company ... in business to save our home planet,” closed its Ventura offices and stores at 1 p.m. so employees and their families could participate in a Ventura demonstration.

The employees were scheduled to march from Mission Park to City Hall, where they intended to stage a “die-in,” lying down on the ground to symbolize how they’ve been impacted by potentially deadly climate change, company spokesperson Whitney Clapper said. 

The Patagonia march was part of Climate Strike 805, which describes itself as a “cross-generational coalition of Ventura County students, organizations and businesses in solidarity with the Global Climate Strike.”

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“What we’re doing at Patagonia is supporting the local youth and local nonprofit organizations and specifically calling for governments around the world to declare a climate of urgency, including here in Ventura,” Clapper said.

The Thousand Oaks demonstration was hosted by 350 Conejo/San Fernando Valley, which is the local chapter of 350.org, an international climate change activist group.

The local chapter’s co-chairperson, R.L. Miller, said 350 stands for the acceptable number of parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

“And we’re somewhere up in the 410 range,” she said.

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Mike Harris covers the east county cities of Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, as well as transportation countywide. You can contact him at mike.harris@vcstar.com or 805-437-0323.