IT’S CLASS WAR!
Thousands of children take to streets across UK in climate change protest spearheaded by Scots schoolgirl aged 13
THOUSANDS of pupils walked out of school yesterday during an unprecedented mass ‘strike’ to campaign over the dangers of climate change.
Children as young as four left classrooms in 60 towns and cities across Britain to join demonstrations demanding action over global warming.
The walk-out was organised by the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement, which spread messages on social media calling on children to leave lessons at 11am.
Pupils from as far afield as London and Fort William answered the call.
Protests were held in Edinburgh and Glasgow, where several hundred youngsters gathered in George Square for the action inspired by Swedish teenager Greta Thurnberg, who began the global movement in August.
Inverness-shire pupil Holly Gillibrand is helping to spearhead the campaign and has gone on strike every Friday morning for the last six weeks at Lochaber High School in Fort William.
The 13-year-old hailed yesterday as a ‘momentous day’.
She said: ‘If you get a detention, that is nothing compared to how we will suffer in the future if nothing is done.’
Holly, who has thousands of social media followers, was joined yesterday by 32 fellow protesters, including 11 striking pupils – their biggest turnout so far. The schoolgirl, who is an ambassador for rewilding charity Scotland Big Picture, said: ‘Some people at school have made fun of me for doing it. It makes me feel a little bit sad because they just don’t understand how serious climate change is and if nothing is done it will impact our future.
‘But there are lots of other people striking around the world, so you don’t feel alone.’
She said that missing lessons at Lochaber High School was ‘a small price to pay for standing up for our planet’.
She added: ‘Our leaders aren’t doing anything. We feel like it’s time they stopped talking and started taking action. They’re sacrificing the future of our living planet.
‘It’s our future and if nothing is done about climate change then our future looks pretty bleak.’
Her mother, Kate Wills, said: ‘Education is important but it’s going to get to the stage where education doesn’t matter.’
In London, mounted police were called in as youngsters blocked Westminster Bridge, let off smoke flares and climbed on statues of political heroes outside Parliament.
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband joined the London protest with his nine-year-old son, Daniel. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon sent messages of support to the children.
Many parents joined in, arriving at schools to pick up their children and take them out on protests with placards.
In Glasgow, around 300 protesters gathered under the 1837 Sir Walter Scott statue in George Square.
Seven-year-old Sophia Oldoyd, a pupil at Madderty Primary School, Perthshire, said: ‘I care about it because I like wildlife. I don’t want climate change to take the future away from me.
‘I really want to protect the deer. I think it’s really good to do this so we can all learn to look after the world. There isn’t another planet for people to live on.’
Grace Watters, 11, from St Mark’s Primary School, Barrhead, Ren- frewshire, said: ‘I chose to strike today in protest against climate change.
‘The progress being made to fight it is very slow and if we don’t start acting now, we may never get round to it and our world will be destroyed.
‘I was a wee bit worried about striking at first, but now I’m here I’m pleased to see so many other people out fighting for their planet. It felt really scary but also made me really proud of myself for doing it. I want to tell politicians to stop fighting over small things and look at the bigger picture.’
The world was given an 11-year deadline to prevent irreversible and catastrophic environmental damage in an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report published last October. Megan Rose, 20, organiser of the Glasgow youth strike, said: ‘Today has been amazing.
‘It’s been so much better than I was expecting. The IPCC report basically terrified me. I don’t think our government and councils are doing enough fast enough. Humans are natural procrastinators, so a deadline scared us all.’
Green MSP Ross Greer said: ‘Every single generation that came before us hasn’t just failed to tackle this crisis, they have caused this crisis. But we’re the ones who are going to stop it.’
The children were also praised by UK energy minister Claire Perry in a surprise intervention. She said she was ‘incredibly proud’ of them and even admitted she ‘would be out there too’ had she been 40 years younger.
Her comments contradicted a statement by Theresa May imploring children not to skip school.
Campaign leaders demanded the Government make tackling climate change more of a priority and said the voting age should be lowered to 16 to give youngsters more of a say.
In Brighton, around 1,000 pupils
‘If nothing is done our future looks bleak’
– many in school uniforms – left school to join a march, bringing traffic to a standstill.
Among them were hard-Left militants who chanted anti-Tory slogans such as ‘Blue out, Greens in’ and ‘F*** the Tories’.
In Belfast, a small but passionate crowd of young people gathered outside City Hall.
Maia Willis Reddick, a 17-year-old student at Belfast’s Methodist College, said her school had been supportive of her joining the action. She said: ‘We are still very conscious about school.
‘I have A-levels, I have stuff to do, we just want to make the point that we are willing to take drastic action in order to highlight the problems of climate change.’
John Bynorth, policy officer for Environmental Protection Scotland, said: ‘The protests gave voice to thousands of Scots schoolchildren who feel they have been excluded from the climate change debate and provided urgent homework for politicians and policy-makers as they consider how to reduce global warming and lessen the impacts on our planet of climate change.’
A Number 10 spokesman said later: ‘Everybody wants young people to be engaged in the issues that affect them most so that we can build a brighter future for all of us.
‘But it is important to emphasise that disruption increases teachers’ workloads and wastes lesson time that teachers have carefully prepared for.
‘That time is crucial for young people, precisely so that they can develop into the top scientists, engineers and advocates we need to help tackle this problem.’
Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom said on Twitter more bluntly: ‘It’s called truancy, not a strike.’
Campaigners are planning a second round of strikes on March 15 as part of a ‘global youth strike’.