By Matt Oberhoffner September 26, 2019

Y’all — we just participated in the LARGEST. CLIMATE. STRIKE. EVER. This is what democracy looks like!

More than four million people around the globe took part in the strike – by far the largest climate action in history. Jonathan Soohoo — Defend’s project manager, for those who haven’t had the good fortune to meet him yet — and I were lucky enough to be in NYC for it, with many thousands of fellow strikers in the streets. The excitement and energy when Greta came to the stage was amazing, and felt in over 1,000 cities across the country and even more around the world. And thanks to you, we had Defenders joining strikes around the country, from Philly to Phoenix, and San Francisco to Austin. Keep tagging us in your photos on Instagram or Twitter–we want to see them, and we’ll include the best in an upcoming photo gallery on our website!

But last week was just the beginning. With Climate Week nearly wrapped up in New York, we need to do our part to keep the momentum going! Take action. National Voter Registration Day was earlier this week, so ask your friends on Facebook & Twitter to register to make sure that your whole squad is ready to protect the planet from leaders who won’t lead and politicians who won’t listen.

Don’t stop there! Send your member of Congress an email explaining that you took part in the strike because we need climate change solutions now, and you expect them to lead the way.

These people work for us—YOU are their boss. Remind them than young people are willing to turn out for climate action, and have just demonstrated their ability to do so.

As Greta Thunberg said, “We are a wave of change. Together and united, we are unstoppable.”

She’s right. It’s why we’ve worked to bring our community together, and it’s why we’ve been working with our partners to build this movement. On Friday, we proved that we can show up in large numbers and that we will turn out for climate action.

We will have more actions to share soon, and more ways for you to build on the momentum from Friday down the road. But for now, I just wanted to say thank you for being a part of Defend Our Future, for being a part of this movement, and for showing up in record numbers when everything we love is on the line. We are the wave of change, and Congress, the tide is coming in.