350<\/a> is an international grassroots organizing group that tackles climate issues. after developing skills with 350 colorado and collaborating with 350pdx, the portland, oregon, branch of 350, herzfeld played an instrumental role in getting reed college students to attend the portland climate march. her objective: get as many reed college community members as possible to participate in the climate strike and show up to the climate march. <\/p>\nherzfeld spearheaded a petition that circulated reed\u2019s campus and called for the college president to shut down the school in recognition of the climate strike. she, along with other students, managed to obtain 676 signatures, equivalent to nearly half of the students currently enrolled at reed college, in support of the petition. other organizing that occurred in the weeks leading up to the event included plastering the campus in posters, coordinating transportation to the strike, and banner and poster making for the march itself, among other logistical details to make the day of the march smooth sailing. <\/p>\n
herzfeld felt compelled to join the movement and help organize due to her increasing anxiety about climate change.<\/p>\n
\u201ci was going to school and learning about all the problems in the world\u2014politically and economically and environmentally. and i was learning about all these problems but i was so busy with school that i wasn\u2019t doing anything. so i was locked in on-campus learning things that were making me extremely depressed and terrified, with no outlet and no time to actually do anything about it. so over the course of last semester, i got increasingly anxious and [was] just in a really, really bad place–to the point where there was one night that i had like a six-hour panic attack,\u201d herzfeld said.<\/p>\n
herzfeld took all this energy and applied to the influential 350 colorado internship the day following her panic attack. speaking up and helping out really was not a choice for herzfeld; it was an obligation. <\/p>\n
\u201cwe don\u2019t have time, we have to,\u201d she said. \u201cthis is a moral responsibility. this is the future of the planet. what else is there to fight for? you know?\u201d <\/p>\n
the organizing does not end with the end of the climate march for herzfeld. <\/p>\n
\u201ci\u2019m really excited about the future. i\u2019m honestly finding it really hard to even concentrate on schoolwork at this point because all i want to do all the time is just organize,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
she plans on connecting all the colleges in portland to create a coalition of environmental organizers to try and organize and share ideas and resources. she wants it to become \u201cthe cool thing for colleges to do\u2014declare a climate emergency,\u201d in hopes that their statuses as institutions can help influence the climate change conversation to get some much-needed change happening. <\/p>\n
the climate strike not only brought newcomers to the movement, but it also inspired people already informed on the movement to stay involved and motivated. <\/p>\n
\u201cafter the climate strike i\u2019m a lot more hopeful about the future of the world than i was before the climate strike,\u201d herzfeld shared. \u201ci<\/em> feel like there\u2019s a global revolution\/renaissance that\u2019s building and that people all over the world are feeling more connected by this global existential threat that connects us in a way that we\u2019ve never had before.<\/em> we\u2019ve never had a crisis like this where everyone is to a degree complicit in it in some way. as a planet, we can\u2019t really shift the blame because it\u2019s kind of all of us\u2026we\u2019re all the enemy. but we\u2019re also all able to be a part of the solution.\u201d <\/p>\nwhen she\u2019s not organizing petitions and protests or studying in her interdisciplinary major of political science, sociology, and economics with a focus on network theory, herzfeld can be found watching films, painting, and attending metal shows around portland.<\/p>\n
\u201cit\u2019s a good way to get the angry energy out \u2014 especially around climate change and politics\u201d <\/p>\n
she\u2019s excited to keep organizing however, and she\u2019s excited with what the climate movement will lead to. <\/p>\n
\u201ci think that the nature of this problem is going to lead to a really, really awesome global movement that we\u2019ve never seen before,\u201d <\/strong>herzfeld said. \u201c<\/strong>that\u2019s what i hope. that\u2019s what i believe. and that\u2019s what i\u2019m working towards so i\u2019m really excited to see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"giselle herzfeld, 22, chats about the global climate strike movement, 350 colorado, and her work getting reed college students involved in the portland climate march.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9850,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4916,5196],"tags":[1011,360,561,144,1259,4265,3016,591,4266],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-11759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate","category-past-storyfest","tag-1011","tag-climate","tag-climate-action","tag-climate-change","tag-oregon","tag-pffaces","tag-portland","tag-storyfest","tag-strike"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
faces of the climate march: oregon - planet forward<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n