Watch as Thunberg condemns the world’s inaction on climate change at the UN conference in the video below.
Video credit: Democracy Now!
Kids across the globe have decided to deal with climate change in their own way.
Extreme weather-related events, including wildfires, heat waves, floods, and droughts are becoming common around the world.
Students rightly believe that their generation will be dealing with the catastrophic consequences of climate change and global warming if nothing is done to stop it.
That’s why tens of thousands of students will be skipping their classes across the globe on March 15 to take to the streets and demand proper action.
The strike is an extension of the #FridaysForFuture movement which has been active worldwide for the last several months.
It all started in August 2018 when 16-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg began cutting her classes on Fridays to protest outside Sweden’s parliament.
Thunberg became famous after she delivered a damning speech at the UN climate conference COP24, in which she told climate negotiators that they weren’t “mature enough to tell it like it is.”
After that, she famously roasted the global elite at the World Economic Forum by saying to them that they were responsible for the climate crisis.
The teen says she won’t stop her protests outside Sweden’s parliament until her country completely submits to the Paris Agreement.
Thunberg’s protests have inspired other young people to do the same in several countries.
On March 15, students in over 1,200 cities and more than 90 countries will join the global climate strike to push their respective governments to do more.
It would be one of the largest environmental protests in history.
If the officials scold the protesting students for cutting classes, they’ve got a perfect reply: “What’s the point in going to school if climate change might destroy all hope of a future?”
The youngsters believe that not much is being done to fight climate change.
A group of young climate activists recently called climate change “the biggest threat in human history” in an open letter published in The Guardian.
They said they won’t accept the inaction of world leaders and will take matters into their own hands, “whether you like it or not.”
“We have the right to live our dreams and hopes,” they added.
“Climate change is already happening. People did die, are dying and will die because of it, but we can and will stop this madness.”
The students who will be protesting on March 15 demand to reduce greenhouse gas emissions although their specific demands vary from country to country.
For instance, the students in the US want preservation of wildlife and public lands, a clean water supply, compulsory education on climate change and its effects from K-8, an end to all fossil fuel projects, a national embrace of the Green New Deal, and a national emergency declaration on climate change.
Australian strikers are demanding a full transition to renewable energy by 2030 and are also protesting against a controversial coal mine project.
The protesters in the UK are demanding to lower the voting age to 16 among other demands.
Though the teens leading the strike aren’t yet graduated from high schools but a whole bunch of climate scientists says the youngsters know what they are protesting for.
“They need our support, but more than that, they need all of us to act,” said a letter released by more than 100 US-based climate scientists in support of the global climate strike.
“Their future depends on it; and so does ours,” the letter added.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose 16-year-old daughter, Isra Hirsi, is one of the organizers of the national strike, has also expressed her support to the strike, saying she will attend it in Washington, D.C.
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