“Climate change is not a lie! Do not let our planet die!”

Over a hundred people armed with their voices took to the streets of Palo Alto last month to vocalize the change needed to save our planet.

Palo Alto community members gathered at City Hall on April 22 to celebrate the 52nd celebration of Earth Day. The event, March and Rally for the Earth, consisted of a series of speakers followed by a march around downtown Palo Alto to build awareness for climate change.

The Raging Grannies, an activist group of elderly women, and students at Gunn High School co-led the event. Victoria Tregoing, a member of the Raging Grannies, praised student involvement in the cause. 

“It’s civic involvement,” Tregoing said. “We didn’t have opportunities like that too much when we’re younger.”

Ajwang Rading, a congressional candidate running to represent California’s 18th congressional district in the House of Representatives, attended the event as well. Rading also commented on the participation of young people as a millennial himself. 

“I’m so moved when I see older generations come out,” Rading said, “But we’re the generation that’s left to inherit the Earth.”

Congresswoman Anna Eshoo spoke at the beginning of the event, discussing the relevance of climate change to Palo Alto. 

“I’ve seen it [climate change] in my own congressional district — the CZU fire, 77,000 of my constituents, evacuees in that fire,” Eshoo said to the crowd. “Previous to that fire, there were floods, and now we see on our coastside that we have the erosion of the seawall, because of sea level rise.”

Rading and Eshoo both campaigned at the event, highlighting the actions they would be taking if they took office. 

“Especially coming up to the primary on June 7, we have the opportunity to elect new leadership that’ll actually deliver stuff,” Rading said. “We’ve had the same representative, respectfully, for 30 years — no environmental bills.”

Eshoo, however, praised the current actions that the federal government is taking towards fixing climate change. 

“We face challenges that are going to require additional action,” Eshoo said. “We passed that action in the House, my friends. It was in the Build Back Better legislation. It is the single largest sum of money and policies directed to climate change, over half a trillion dollars.”

Attendee Matt Schlagel commented on the importance of finding a community at events such as the Earth Day Rally.

“The most important thing is to recognize that we have a problem, and once you recognize it, to find people who actually care about it that you can build communities around,” Schlagel said. “So I love it that today all of these people who are concerned about climate are out here, and are building communities that we can carry forward.”