Story at a glance:
- Climate activists have been starving themselves outside of the White House for more than a week.
- One activist had to be sent to the emergency room because he was experiencing nausea, dizziness and blurred vision.
- The activists do not want Biden to compromise on his $3.5 trillion agenda that addresses measures to combat climate change.
Climate change activists have been starving themselves outside of the White House for more than a week.
With an ongoing hunger strike since Oct. 20, an environmental advocacy group called Sunrise Movement has a message for President Biden: add meaningful climate change provisions to your economic package, or our activists in wheelchairs will keep suffering from hunger, People Magazine reported.
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“I’m seven days into the hunger strike and my body hurts, my stomach honestly feels vacuous, my body feels vacuous, and I have a headache that won’t go away,” Kidus Girma, 26, told CNN. “We’re at the point where our muscles are being eaten up by our bodies.”
“I’m waiting for my president to start fighting for me,” he added. “I’m waiting for Joe Biden to start fighting for the people who elected him.”
On Saturday, Girma had to be sent to the emergency room because he was experiencing nausea, dizziness and blurred vision.
Despite his sudden scare, he returned to the hunger strike the following day.
One of the wheelchair-bound activists is named Paul Campion, a 24-year-old student from Loyola University Chicago studying environmental science. Campion told the National Catholic Reporter he is fighting for a Green New Deal.
In addition, he is striking after “seeing how Biden was just not fighting for his own agenda, not fighting to deliver the climate legislation that we need to save our lives and have clean air, clean water and a good future.”
Campion refers to Biden’s $3.5 trillion agenda that addresses measures to combat climate change. Biden is more likely to compromise based on criticism from some Democrats like Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.).
Accompanying Girma and Campion is Ema Govea, Julia Paramo, and Abby Leedy.
“The stakes of this moment are greater than their own lives: the United States is at a crossroad on climate, and our country has a choice between mass human suffering or mass human survival,” the organization said on its website. “Hunger strikes and fasting are tactics that have been used by social movements throughout history to draw attention to certain issues, underscore the moral authority of participants and put pressure on key targets.”
“We hope that these activists’ hunger strike can appeal to Joe Biden, bring more people into our broader movement and emphasize what is at stake — future life on this planet — in this bill,” they continued.
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