Climate Families NYC: Join the March to End Fossil Fuel (and have fun doing it!)

Climate Families NYC: Join the March to End Fossil Fuel (and have fun doing it!)

Music. Drawing. Blowing bubbles. These are just a few ways a group of NYC kids and families are working to help the environment. Their group is called Climate Families NYC, and they want a cleaner, greener future for all, while making climate activism fun for kids and families. 

And after a summer of climate disasters, it feels more important than ever that Climate Families NYC advocates for climate justice, Liat Olenick, the organization’s co-chair, explained.

“This summer, no matter where you are, you’ve been affected by the climate crisis. Obviously, some more than others, but here in New York City, we had wildfire smoke, and it has been affecting air quality all summer,” Olenick, who’s also a mom, said. 

The group is currently gearing up for the March to End Fossil Fuels on Sept. 17.

Climate Families NYC: Making Caring for the Environment Fun for Kids and Families

Olenick wants everyone to be able to participate in the climate movement. But she realizes that many aspects to organizing activism projects can be inaccessible for people who have young children.

“There are meetings at dinner time or bedtime, or really long protests with 30 speakers. Being there with kids, they don’t want to stand and listen for two hours,” she said.

When the organization was founded in 2018, Olenick knew it was important to make climate activism fun for kids and more family-friendly.

“That means making it really fun, playful and creative so that kids can be engaged and is also something parents can do with their kids,” she said. “And doing things at times of the day that work for families.”

Through preparation events that feature fun activities for kids, members of Climate Families NYC are creating colorful dinosaur- and fossil themed costumes for marchers to wear that draw attention to the fossil-fuel issue when they march this month. 

Alongside protestors and others who stand for climate justice, the group will march together in a fun and creative kids and families hub, complete with the dinosaur costumes, as well as props and signs, snacks, music and a plan for kid and parent-friendly marching. 

Earlier this month, the organization held a playdate and art build in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, where they created many of the costumes that kids will wear.

“If you’re trying to do a march with young kids, you need different things,” Olenick said. “We want to show that families, parents and young children are at the front lines of the climate crisis. We’re showing up together to send a strong message to President Biden about what he should do to protect them.”

More About Climate Families NYC

Making activism fun is an overall theme of Climate Families NYC, but the organization does have a serious goal: to get the country to move away from using fossil fuels. 

The organization has about 1,000 members from across the city. Of course, some members are more active than others, as is the case in many organizations. 

Members use family-led activism to push elected officials–as well as financial institutions–to move off of fossil fuels and into climate justice. 

Olenick obviously has strong feelings on the fossil fuel issue, but it’s more about what the consensus of scientists around the world say, she explained. 

“It’s that in order to have a planet that human beings can live on safely, we need to end the extraction and burning of fossil fuels because they’re warming the planet and destabilizing our climate,” she said. 

Last month, the United Nations (U.N.) released a report on the rights of children to a healthy environment. The U.N. has also reported that fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas are the largest contributor to global climate change. 

Scientists have said that renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, are alternatives to fossil fuels. 

For more information about the upcoming March to End Fossil Fuels, visit endfossilfuels.us. To learn more about Climate Families NYC, visit climatefamiliesnyc.org.

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