“ The climate emergency is the most pressing human rights problem for the children of this new generation. Its consequences will determine their lives in every way imaginable, ”said Amnesty International Secretary General Kumi Naidoo. With this, young people around the world leave school this September 20 in a global call to action and ask adults to join them in this climate emergency.
From the US to Sweden, from Germany to Japan and so on to more than 150 countries, some 2,500 coordinated protests will take place across the globe. The goal is to make this Friday the largest climate mobilization in human history, and to pressure government leaders to do something about it when they meet for the United Nations Climate Summit in New York next week.
The march on September 20 will be followed by a second world march on September 27 that will mark the end of the world summit in New York and a page of the next chapter, when the UN General Assembly meets to discuss its plans to curb greenhouse gases under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
It all started with one person
Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, just 16 years old, began her particular climate struggle in August 2018, following a series of heat waves and forest fires in Sweden, her native country. Every day for the two weeks leading up to the September 9 elections in that country, he camped out in front of the parliament in Stockholm and handed out leaflets that read “I’m doing this because you adults are shitting my future.”
When asked why he was not in school, Thunberg replied: “I have my books here. But I am also thinking: what am I missing? What am I going to learn in school? Facts don’t matter anymore, politicians don’t listen. to scientists, then why should I learn? “
Since then, young Greta has been spreading her speech: in short, stop talking and do something.
After the elections, Thunberg returned to school, except on Fridays. On Fridays, he returned to the parliament building to continue his protest. Those weekly protests have become the Friday for the Future #FridaysforFuture movement (which in Spain has been established as Youth for Climate) , Students from the United Kingdom, Uganda, France, Poland, Thailand, Colombia and other countries organized their own protests on Fridays, skipping classes to protest the government’s inaction on climate change.
The popularity of the movement has made Thunberg a famous activist. He made a short but inflammatory speech at the World Economic Forum.
Thunberg has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. “We have nominated Greta Thunberg because if we do nothing to stop climate change it will cause wars, conflicts and refugees,” said Norwegian Socialist MP Freddy André Øvstegård.
Do adults pay attention?
Demanding that adults act is the only recourse that young people have. They are not allowed to vote and do not feel treated with respect when they try to make their voices heard.
“This should not be the responsibility of children. Now adults must help us,” says Thunberg in a Global Climate Strike video. “… If it’s not you who should do it, who else? And if not now, when?”
In Spain
In Spain, the main strike call will take place on Friday, September 27, while in many other countries it will take place on Friday, September 20.
” We currently have 2,350 registered cities” and tens of thousands of planned activities, Fridays For Future tells on its website.
Today, in Madrid, among other things, a march will begin that will cross Madrid’s Gran Vía, to the Plaza del Callao, starting at 11.00, according to the Save The Planet Now platform along with more than 300 other organizations that add their support to “Fridays For Future”.
