By Morgane Dirion
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GLOBAL CLIMATE STRIKE: STUDENTS ARE SKIPPING SCHOOL TO SAVE THEIR FUTURE
What we stand for is what we stand on, read their signs. When 300 000 German students, 10 000 Londoners, 150 000 Montrealians or thousands in Chile, Colombia, Croatia and South Africa marched down their streets on 15th March to protest against the inaction of their governments regarding the current climate crisis, it was clear they were standing up.
It was clear that the 1.4 million young people that skipped school in the 123 countries were united to make sure that, as the kids were shouting, our future won’t burn. They decided to make a change. They were not ready to give up on their future and they proved it by managing to form one of the largest environmental protests in history.
Image by Robert Melen
“The climate strike is a wake-up call to our own generation. And it is the start of a network that will solve the greatest challenge in human history,” reads the Climate Strike Facebook page. And that is the goal of the movement, inspired by the 16 year old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who first skipped school in August 2018 to strike in front of the Swedish Parliament building. Yesterday she was a student skipping school every Friday, today she is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Thunberg is the face of this new Green Revolution we are witnessing today.
This Earth Strike, as the 15th March protest was called, already took place on 15th February when, for instance, more than 10 000 students across the UK went on strike. Hoping another action a month later would make the movement grow and reach out even more globally, they decided to repeat the experience on 15 March. And it worked. In Wales, for instance, only Cardiff went on strike in February. In the March protest, other cities decided to follow its lead such as Aberystwyth and Swansea.
In the UK, Fridays4Future became the Youth Strike 4 Climate, hosted by UK Student Climate Network. This is a student-led organization for those under 18 funded only by donors and volunteers. The demands are as follows :
- That the government act on the climate emergency,
- Reform national curricula to make the ecological crisis an educational priority
- To communicate on the severity of crisis and the necessity to act now and finally
- Lower the voting age to 16.
A third march is planned on 12th April. If you want to make a difference, find out more about the event on facebook here and make sure to bring your sign and march down your streets this friday!
Featured image of ‘This turtle against climate change – Melbourne rally for Climate Action’ by Takver: https://bit.ly/2FXQpos