More than a dozen Michigan communities were set to participate in a worldwide push for action on global warming today. Kalamazoo’s climate strike continues until 6 o’clock this evening at the Arcadia Creek Festival Place. But the day started with a rally at the flagpoles on Western Michigan University’s campus.

The crowd chanted “No system change, no climate change,” “No more coal, no more oil, keep our carbon in the soil,” “not much time left on the clock, corporations got to stop," and "out of the classroom, into the streets."

Alicia McCallum studies biology at WMU. She held a sign that said, “We literally can’t live anywhere else.”

McCallum says climate change is on her mind “all the time,” because “we’re going to die if we don’t start making a difference now.”

McCallum said watching the Amazon rainforest burn was a turning point on an issue she’d already considered “pretty urgent.”

“That’s kind of the final straw for our climate,” she said. “The Amazon is the lungs of the earth” and a huge part of its biodiversity, she added.

Students from at least three high schools – including one in Muskegon – came to the rally at Western. Portage Northern student Olivia Bagley said she’ll have to serve three detentions since her parents didn’t excuse her absence from school, although they did say she could attend the strike. Bagley brought a sign.

“It says ‘detention isn’t the end of the world. Climate change is,’” she explained.

Emma Hilgart-Griff goes to Loy Norrix High School. She said she’s looking into holding weekly climate strikes with her classmates, and taking the protest to Lansing.

“Michigan itself needs to make big changes on how we’re using our resources, what we’re doing with the Great Lakes, the carbon emissions we’re letting off,” she said.