Building an Intergenerational Movement
for Climate Justice

September 2024 All-Societies Platform

Watch the Recording

The September All-Societies Platform examined the unique intergenerational nature of the Climate Justice Movement. This panel explored the intergenerational modes and methods that youth and elders have employed, in connecting across their generational divides for this global movement.

Panelists represent Third Act and Fridays For Future (two organizations that Ethical NYC partners with, to support this Climate Justice Movement), as well as No Brooklyn Pipeline, and Climate Families.

Panelists

Helen Mancini is a senior at Stuyvesant High School and a climate and social justice organizer with Fridays For Future NYC where she has planned four global school strikes and many local rallies. She was also a speaker and lead organizer for the 2023 March To End Fossil Fuels which mobilized 75,000 people. 

Adérìnsọ́lá Marian Babawale  (She/Her/Hers) is a 22-year-old Abolitionist & college student majoring in Global environmental studies liberal arts. She is a poet, sustainable fashionista and artist who also considers herself a steward of the land and a solution based organizer, advocating for Eco & housing justice as well as food sovereignty.  Ade’s climate activism has included involvement with FFF and the No Brooklyn Pipeline Movement and she has given speeches and taught climate songs at climate rallies and marches.

Pat Almonrode is an attorney and a longtime climate activist. He has worked with 350NYC and other local and national groups, and is currently co-facilitator of Third Act NYC, as well as Third Act Lawyers. Pat has been particularly interested in the intersection of law and climate advocacy, and in the role of the faith community in the climate movement. He was instrumental in organizing faith participation in the 2014 Climate March that brought more than 350,000 people to the streets of NYC, and more recently has been involved in the elders’ actions that have been part of “The Summer of Heat,” a months-long series of protests targeting Citigroup, the world’s largest financer of new fossil-fuel infrastructure projects. He lives on the Upper West Side with his wife, Susan Gargiulo, and is active in local Democratic politics.

Eliza Clark is from New York City and lives in Manhattan with her husband and three daughters. She was inspired to take an active part in the climate movement by the example of her teenage daughter Helen Mancini who is a lead organizer with Fridays for Future NYC. Her background is in education and academia. She has a PhD from Harvard University in American Studies and her areas of research include the 19th century women’s movement and the intersection of social and political movements with family life. She has taught history and writing at both the college and high school levels; she has also spent many years as a primary parent and caregiver. She joined Climate Families NYC in 2022 and now serves as one of its volunteer Co-Chairs. She regularly participates in climate actions with her 6-year-old who has befriended many other kids in the group. She and Helen wrote about the urgent need for parents to get involved in climate activism in Teen Vogue.

Monica Weiss is a long time Ethical Culture member, retired educator and climate activist. Since retiring from teaching she has trained as a Climate Reality Leader, completed the Project Drawdown Workshop, and is on the 350NYC Steering Committee and the Third Act NYC Coordinating Committee.  Committed to empowering youth, Monica has focused much of her activism on creating welcoming spaces for many youth groups to meet and organize at New York Society for Ethical Culture including Fridays For Future, since 2019. 

Panel Moderator:  Khandra Sears

Khandra Sears is the American Ethical Union’s Board President. Khandra’s relationship with Ethical Culture began as she pursued an undergraduate degree in microbiology and began to question what faith and the Bible meant to her. As she moved to Baltimore to earn a PhD in Microbiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), she started to attend Baltimore Ethical Society Platforms and went on to join them as a member. Currently, Khandra works at UMSOM as part of a research team that develops live oral vaccines primarily against non-typhoidal strains of Salmonella enterica but also against other enteric bacteria. Since gastroenteric infections are still a leading cause of illness and death in children in resource-limited regions, she takes pride in the fact that she is working to address this issue and ultimately improve human lives.

Header photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash