UPHE at Friday’s for Future Rally
Thanks to all who attended last Friday’s climate strike at the capitol. The Salt Lake City strike was one of over 7,000 cities across the globe who participated, demonstrating a clear demand for updated policies and legislative actions. Utah policies are far behind the times and fail to address the severity and adequately protect the public from the climate crisis.
UPHE’s Brandi O’Brien spoke at the rally and was quoted in The Daily Utah Chronicle, “We have a saying at UPHE — ask your doctor if clean air is right for you. If he says no, you need a new one. Well, that stands for the legislature as well. The science is clear that there is no safe level of air pollution.”
The strike focused on intersectionality and environmental justice for communities adversely affected by climate change and environmental policies. Salt Lake City is no stranger to seeing this disparity play out. The west side is continually exploited. The latest example is the Utah Inland Port, a massive warehouse and freight transferring facility that will bring thousands of extra diesel trucks through our city daily.
Despite naming getting water to Great Salt Lake a top priority this legislative session, lawmakers used recent snowfall as an excuse to take no meaningful action to save the lake. The dwindling lake levels are a combination of poor water management and climate change impacts. We can not rely on Mother Nature to fix human-created poor policy.
We have seen a few important wins for clean air and a clean future for Utah come from robust pressure from the public, Salt Lake County Council’s ordinance to prevent a mine in Parley’s Canyon and Governor Cox’s rescission of his support for the US Magnesium canal expansions. When we focus our support on a specific policy or idea, we can effectively pressure the powers that be to make the right decisions. Right now, we’re asking you to focus your support on tightening the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter.
Read the Daily Utah Chronicle coverage of the rally here.
