The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Young people walk out over climate change
University students and school pupils join protests across UK in fight for sustainable future and political action
We are told to work and study hard for our future but... the question arises – what future?
Young people across Tayside and Fife walked out of lessons yesterday to protest against the “inaction” of politicians over climate change.
They joined students and school pupils across the world in demonstrations as part of a global day of action.
Youngsters staged events in 100 British towns and cities, calling for urgent action to tackle climate change, cut emissions and switch to renewable energy.
St Andrews University students marched through the town from St Salvator’s Quad.
Second year student Lea Weimann said: “St Andrews might just be a small town and we might not be able to gather a crowd as big as a city, but we still want to demonstrate how much we care.
“Climate change is not just an environmental issue, but a social and economic one as well.
“We are at the beginning of a new era – a world requiring major change, a world requiring collective action, a rise-up of citizens from around the world, a call for action.
“As the youth, we are told to work and study hard for our future but with climate change progressing the question arises – what future?
“The fossil fuel industry still dominates our lives. Animal agriculture is still left largely undebated. Plastic pollution is choking our planet.
“Our linear economy is producing and throwing away more items every minute. It is time to wake up. It is time to rise to the biggest collective challenge of our century – climate change.
“The signs are clear – everywhere extreme weather events are becoming the norm and record temperatures are being hit. We, as the youth, demand climate action.”
George Habeshaw, 9, and sister Flora, 7, were among Fife children who took part in the protest at the Scottish Parliament.
The Falkland Primary School pupils and mother Andrea travelled with a number of other families, by train, to Holyrood.
They were inspired by the speech of young Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg and worried by the warning that there were only 12 years to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Andrea said her children were very angry about the way climate change was not being taken seriously enough.
She said: “If I didn’t give them the opportunity to do something now, in 12 years’ time, are they going to say to me: ‘Are we among the people who did nothing or did we do something’?”
The global day of action has been inspired by teenager Greta, who protests every Friday outside Sweden’s parliament to urge leaders to tackle climate change.
In Edinburgh an event was staged outside the Scottish Parliament building, while young people in Glasgow descended on George Square.
Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie joined the Glasgow event.
He said: “A generation of young people know that they’ve been failed on climate change by political parties, by governments, by corporations and they need to put new energy and urgency into this global crisis if we’re going to have a chance of a solution.
“These young people would otherwise have been in their classrooms, getting lessons about their future – they’re not going to have a future unless we radically transform our world and begin living sustainably.
“There’s not just one day of climate protests and then we solve it or don’t solve it.”
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard also joined protesters in George Square “to hear the demands of the young people”.
He said: “Clearly all of these young people, some of them as young as primary school children, are here because they’re stirred by this as an issue.”