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Climate Protestors Gather At Michigan Capitol Building Demanding Green New Deal

Troy Distelrath speaks at the Lansing climate strike on Dec. 6th, 2019.
Alec Gerstenberger
Troy Distelrath speaks at the Lansing climate strike on Dec. 6th, 2019.

Friday hundreds of people were at the capitol to make their voices heard before the democratic primaries begin.

 

Protesters had one question for Michigan politicians.

“Which side are you on?”, sang the crowd.

Ezra Montero is a freshman at Michigan State University. But Friday, he was a press coordinator for the youth-led Sunrise Movement. He said the group is hoping to pressure politicians running for office like Michigan senator Gary Peters to support the Green New Deal. 

“The politicians are just going to keep voting for money unless they really realize that the people aren't going to stand for it," said Montero. "We need to let them know that if they don't support what the people need, we will vote them out of office.”

For now, Peters has stated he supports aspects of the Green New Deal, but he has not publicly announced his support for the climate change proposal; voting "present" in the Senate last February when the proposal was on the floor.

Alyssa Lyons is a resident of Lansing. She said that for her, climate change and environmental policy is among the top issues that influences her vote.

"It's extremely important to me as a voter, in fact it's probably one of the most important issues to me as a voter."

Lyons went on to say that she believes that as time goes on, more and more people from her generation will step up and speak out on the issue of climate change.

 

Alina Zhuravel helps gather news content for online and on-air.
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