Tyler Chalfant | October 3rd, 2019

16-year old climate activist Greta Thunberg announced Wednesday on Twitter that she will be joining Iowa City students in their strike this Friday. This spring, it was Thunberg who inspired Massimo Biggers, an Iowa City middle school student, to begin striking.

Since the local movement began, both the Iowa City School Board and City Council have passed climate plans, and this September, hundreds of students and community members joined Biggers and the other strikers in a march on City Hall and the University of Iowa campus. 

“Greta coming to Iowa City means that people have paid attention to our climate strikes and we have been heard,” Biggers told the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Thunberg gained international attention for protesting outside the Swedish parliament last year. After taking a sailboat across the Atlantic Ocean to speak at the U.N. Climate Action Summit, also spoke before Congress and has become a focal point for both supporters and critics of addressing climate change. 

“We are honored and inspired and emboldened by Greta’s campaign,” Biggers said, “and we hope her visit brings together our town and the university to join together for a real climate plan, end coal and the power plant, and put Iowa City in the forefront for climate emergency action in the nation.”