COOK- Whether the weather is hot or cold, sunshine or rain or snow, Fred Schumacher, of Greaney, and others can be seen alongside Highway 53 in Cook every Friday holding up signs for passing motorists. It’s not about the weather, Schumacher said. It’s about climate change.
Schumacher said that the small group is responding in solidarity with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg’s “school strike” for action against climate change in 2018, an event that has inspired a series of youth-driven global climate strikes in subsequent years, the most recent observed in more than 90 countries on Sept. 24.
“They’re the ones that are the motivation. It’s the kids that are really kind of driving this thing, because it’s their world,” Schumacher said. “We’re kind of following along with the kids. We just decided that every Friday from noon to 1 p.m. we’ll be out here with signs.”
Sporting signs with slogans such as “Climate Action Now” and “There is no PLAN(et) B,” three others joined Schumacher on the sidewalk last Friday, including Leah Rogne, his wife.
“Climate change is happening, and the human part of it is real,” Rogne said. “We know that because of the fires this year. Anybody who’s lived here for any length of time knows that the forest is changing. I’m getting more maple trees on my land, and the boreal forest is receding at a rapid rate. And at our latitude, we are changing faster than many parts of the United States. So, it’s here, it’s happening.”
Kathleen McQuillan said that she’s been observing changes for long time.
“I’ve been at this for 50 years, in truth,” she said. “My sign says, ‘Time is running out.’ The science is clear that we need to move faster on reducing the stress that we’re putting on the planet. I see an incredible change in the number of animals and the health of the forest. I know that this much pressure for this many decades has had an impact, even though it’s considered a renewable resource. There’s so many of us now, so we have to look at how we live, and how to reduce our personal impact in each of our lives. We live in a big world with a lot of people that are struggling just to get the basics. Americans are so beyond the basics, and we have to rethink the way we live.”
Kevin Steva framed the climate dilemma more bluntly.
“We’re at war with the future of our country, the future of our world, and the future of our grandchildren,” he said. “Climate change is the biggest issue in my family’s life. I have grandchildren, ten grandchildren. The science is clear – we know climate change is happening, and we’re not addressing it fast enough. My sign is all about doing something now. We’ve been talking about it long enough. We need to take action.”
Schumacher said he’s experienced the effects of climate change and erratic weather with farmland he owns and rents in North Dakota.
“My renter, I just talked with him this week. We have beans on our land. Their final yield came in at about 36 bushels per acre, just middling,” he said. “His fields and his father’s farm together ran between 19 and 60. I used to say that in 10 years you get two good years, five mediocre to middling years, and three really bad years. That’s how you could plan things out, but now you can’t plan anything.”
Reactions
All four present on Friday said that the overwhelming response from passing drivers has been positive.
“I think people are starting to recognize that we’re really up against the wall on this,” Schumacher said. “Something has to be done.”
“I would say (the response) is generally favorable, which is a little bit surprising,” Steva said. “Some people clearly don’t agree. They indicate that when they go by, using hand gestures, but you get a lot of people with very positive smiles, waving, honking. I think probably two-thirds, maybe three-quarters of the people, seem to agree, which is a pretty high percentage.”
In a time defined by the restriction of the COVID-19 pandemic, McQuillan sees a particular benefit to being out on the sidewalk with signs.
“It’s hard for people to connect right now. It has been all along,” she said. “To be out on the corner with our message just makes people think about it for a few seconds, and that’s important. There’s so much pressing in on everybody about what to think. This deserves a few seconds of their time.”
And conversely, McQuillan draws energy from those positive acknowledgements from passers-by.
“We get lots of people beeping and waving, and I think it makes us feel like we don’t have these feelings just all alone, that there are other people that think like we do or worry about the same things that we do. I get encouragement and strength from that.”
The numbers may vary a bit from week to week, but Schumacher said people can count on them being there at the corner of Highway 53 and River St. on Fridays from noon to 1 p.m., and he invited others concerned about climate change to join them.