Opening Day Die-In
To support the Global Climate Strike Sept 20–27, our colleges’ Opening Day faculty/staff activities kicked off with a surpise Die-In — in solidarity with the Global Poor, the Global South, women and People of Color who bear the brunt of the climate crisis.
With over 500 professional educators looking on, corpses comprised of FHDA students and employees (plus local community members) collapsed onto the cold concrete in front of Smithwick Theater at Foothill College in Silicon Valley— challenging us all to include Climate Science and Climate Policy in every corner of the college curriculum (from STEM to the Humanities).
As Foothill De Anza Community College District educators literally stepped over our corpses to get to their regularly-scheduled staff development workshops, the ongoing global climate collapse continued to deal death and devastation across huge swathes of the Americas.
Much of South Texas remained underwater after up to 40+ inches of rain in the wake of Tropical Storm Imelda;
The Bahamas continued the grim process of recovering hundreds of real corpses killed by Hurricane Dorian earlier this month;
American Citizens in Puerto Rico still struggled to survive the aftermath of Hurricane Maria more than one year ago;
The Northern Hemisphere sweltered under the hottest summer in recorded history.
The Amazon, lungs of the earth, remains choked in flames across huge swathes of Brazil and Bolivia.
The Arctic breached temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit as the sea ice collapses.
Faced with a global crisis of explosive magnitude, educators were urged to take direct and immediate action in their own classrooms and communities.
In addition, college educators were warned of the many media-driven messages which urge us to avoid Teaching Climate Science and Climate Policy.
Long-time employees confirmed that the Die-In was the first-ever non-union protest action in Foothill College’s entire 62-year history.
Some students and staff members later participated in Global Climate Strike Rallies and Marches from San Jose to San Francisco on Friday Sept 20.
Around the globe millions of youth and adults marched for climate justice.
