Last Saturday, over 100 people gathered at the Flagstaff Hill Pavilion in Oakland to denounce President Trump and his recent climate-endangering executive orders. These orders include ones to decrease the United States involvement in global climate action and increase our oil production.
The event, organized by the Climate Action Campaign, was attended by local leaders, activists, and community members. One such leader was Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, who gave a speech saying that “cities like Pittsburgh are at the epicenter of the climate crisis,” as our city is consistently reported as one of the most air polluted cities in the world. Wilkinsburg Borough Councilwoman NaTisha Washington, another featured speaker, reminded the crowd that Allegheny County spends “hundreds of millions of dollars” combating the repercussions of climate change every year.
“We have air pollution and lead poisoning that is stopping our children and our workers and our parents and our people that are helping our sick,” she said.
A third speaker, Representative Summer Lee, left the rally attendees with hope for Pittsburgh’s ability to fight climate change. “This is a union town and a movement town, and it’s also a climate action town.”
“If we didn’t have power, you would not have sent a Black woman, poor from the Mon Valley, talking about environmental racism, to fight for a Green New Deal on the national stage.”
Her final words were: “We sent that from Pittsburgh, we will send more. And the next message that we will send from Pittsburgh is, hell no, Donald Trump.”
