I’m 14 years old and climate change has already destroyed two of the places I’ve called home.
Friend,
I’m 14 years old and climate change has already destroyed two of the places I’ve called home. I’m in this fight for the future of our planet and I’m writing today to ask you to support me.
This fall I stood in front of more than 100,000 people in Foley Square and told the story of how Hurricane Sandy upended my life.
I remember laying in my bed in our apartment in Bed-Stuy. I was trying to sleep, listening to the winds howl and the rain slam down on our roof. My mother grabbed me from my bed after loud cracking sounds. Right after that, the ceiling came crashing down right onto my bed. We fled into the night with nothing.
Our apartment was damaged beyond repair that day. My family moved into a hotel and struggled for years to find another affordable place to live. I struggled too. I still get scared when it rains too hard, remembering that day.
Years later, Hurricane Maria struck my ancestral home of Puerto Rico. Another landmark of my childhood, scarred by climate change
While we were living in the hotel, my mother got involved with New York Communities for Change. Immediately after Hurricane Sandy hit, NYCC had organized relief efforts in the Rockaways, Long Beach and other low income communities affected by the storm. They also started organizing families that had been displaced, like mine.
Over the years my mom has inspired me. Telling my family’s story and demanding change. Because of her work, and the work of countless other NYCC members and staff, New York City divested its pension funds from fossil fuels and passed legislation that would require our city’s dirty buildings to clean up. We’ve also stopped a huge new fracked gas pipeline from coming to New York.
As the decade comes to a close, we’re looking ahead to 2030 — a key benchmark in the fight for a greener world. We know what our state needs to look like at the end of the next decade, if we want to avert disaster. We need a Green New Deal for New York. We must get Wall Street giants like BlackRock and JP Morgan Chase to stop fueling the climate crisis. And we need to win it all in the next 10 years.
Sent via ActionNetwork.org.
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