Youth worldwide skip class in climate action protests
FROM the South Pacific to the edge of the Arctic Circle, students mobilised by word of mouth and social media skipped class on Friday to protest what they believed were their governments’ failure to take tough action against global warming.
The co-ordinated “school strikes”, were inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who began holding solitary demonstrations outside the Swedish Parliament last year.
Since then, the weekly protests have snowballed from a handful of cities to hundreds, fuelled by Thunberg, who was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Friday’s rallies were expected to be one of the biggest international actions yet.
Protests were planned to take place in more than 100 cities around the world.
In Berlin, 10 000 protesters, most of them young students, gathered in a downtown square, waving signs with slogans such as “March now or swim later” and “Climate Protection Report Card: F,” before marching through the capital’s government quarter and a planned stop in front of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office.
In Poland, thousands marched in rainy Warsaw and other cities to demand a ban on the burning of coal, which is a major source of carbon dioxide. Some wore face masks as they carried banners that read “Today’s Air Smells Like the Planet’s Last Days” and “Make Love Not CO2.”
In India’s capital New Delhi, schoolchildren protested inaction on climate change and rising air pollution levels that often far exceeds World Health Organisation limits.
About 50 students protested in Pretoria, chanting “there’s no planet B.” One protester held a sign reading “You’ll Miss The Rains Down in Africa”. Experts say Africa, with its population of more than 1 billion people, is expected to be hardest hit by global warming even though it contributes least to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause it. In Helsinki, 3 000 students gathered in front of Finland’s Parliament sporting placards such as: “Dinosaurs thought they had time too!”
A website was used to co-ordinate the rallies in over 2 000 cities.