Climate strikers out in force

Students across a warming globe pleaded for their lives, future and planet yesterday, demanding tough action on climate change.

Angry students in more than 100 countries walked out of classes to protest what they see as climate policy failures by their governments.

More than 150,000 students and adults who were mobilised by word of mouth and social media protested in Europe, according to police estimates.

The coordinated ‘‘strikes’’ were inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who began holding solitary demonstrations outside the Swedish parliament last year.

Thunberg, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, told a rally in Stockholm that the world faced an ‘‘existential crisis, the biggest crisis humanity ever has faced’’.

In India’s capital, New Delhi, schoolchildren demanded that authorities tackle rising air pollution levels, which often far exceed World Health Organisation limits.

In Paris, teenagers thronged streets around the Pantheon. Some criticised French President Emmanuel Macron, who sees himself as the guarantor of the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord but is criticised by activists as too business-friendly and not doing enough to reduce emissions.

In Washington, DC, protesters spoke in front of a banner saying ‘‘We don’t want to die’’. In San Francisco, 1000 demonstrators descended on the offices of Senator Dianne Feinstein and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling for passage of the massive ‘‘Green New Deal’’ bill proposed in the US Congress.

In South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, one protester held a sign reading ‘‘You’ll miss the rains down in Africa’’. Experts say Africa is expected to be hardest hit by global warming.

Thousands marched in a rainy Warsaw and other Polish cities to demand a ban on burning coal, a major source of carbon dioxide. In Berlin, police said as many as 20,000 protesters gathered in a downtown square before marching to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office.

Thunberg predicted that the students won’t let up their climate protests. ‘‘We are on strike because we do want a future.’’

–AP