Hundreds of thousands join world youth climate demo

Yahoo – AFP, March 15, 2019

"If you don't act like adults, we will" -- banners, slogans and a global cry by young
people for politicians to take urgent action on climate change (AFP Photo/
EMMANUEL DUNAND)

Hundreds of thousands of young people skipped school across the globe on Friday to march through the streets for an international day of student protests aimed at pushing world leaders into action on climate change.

Classrooms in capitals from Bangkok to Berlin and Lagos to London emptied as organisers of the student strike called demos in more than 100 countries.

Students flooded into the streets across Europe and Asia carrying placards reading: "There is no planet B", "You're destroying our future" and "If you don't act like adults, we will."

Despite three decades of warnings, carbon dioxide emissions hit record levels in 2017 and again last year.

Loading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases at current rates will eventually lead to an uninhabitable planet, scientists say.

From Turin to Nairobi, school children and teenagers skipped school to demand 

urgent action on climate (AFP Photo/Marco BERTORELLO)

In Stockholm, Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg who inspired the protests, warned that time was running out.

"We are living through an existential crisis that has been ignored for decades and if we do not act now it may be too late," the 16-year-old told Swedish public television station SVT.

Writing on Instagram, Thunberg -- who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her activism -- estimated more than 10,000 youngsters had joined the Stockholm protest.

In Delhi, one of the world's most polluted cities, 200 students took part in a colourful protest, waving ribbons, juggling and performing stunts with hoops.

"We have to make a choice whether we want to sit and be indifferent or do something for our planet," said 16-year-old student Srijani Datta.

"We are living through an existential crisis that has been ignored for decades," 

says 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, wearing yellow, who has been 

nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize (AFP Photo/Henrik MONTGOMERY)

"Most of us are 16-17 and we're going to turn 18 soon... As voters we will show we care about climate change. If you can't give us that, you will not get our votes."

In Sydney, 18-year-old Charles Rickwood warned that Australia's famous Great Barrier Reef could be destroyed.

"If current trends in the environment continue, we'll see the one, two degrees increase in our ocean then it will simply become unsustainable and we could lose the entire Great Barrier Reef," he told AFP.

Skipping exams

European students were also out en masse. Several thousand youngsters thronged the streets of central London in a raucous demonstration with banners and placards.

In France, tens of thousands joined the youth strike, with up to 40,000 in Paris 

alone, police said (AFP Photo/Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS)

Packing into Parliament Square, they cheered and chanted "Change... now!" before marching past Downing Street and massing outside Buckingham Palace.

"They're not going to stop me trying to save the planet," said 15-year-old Joe Crabtree, from southwest London who had missed two exams to join the demo.

Hundreds of thousands marched overall, according to estimates by organising groups such as the Youth For Climate movement and AFP reporters.

The Friday for Future movement said more than 300,000 young people demonstrated in Germany alone.

As youngsters hit the streets, nations meeting at the UN environment assembly in Kenya announced they had agreed to "significantly reduce" single-use plastics over the next decade.

In London, thousands of youngsters skipped classes to march on Downing Street 

(AFP Photo/Tolga Akmen)

But experts said the pledge -- which only referred to man-made global warming and made no mention of the fossil fuels driving it -- fell far short of the steps needed to tackle Earth's burgeoning pollution crisis.

'Adults should learn a lesson'

The global action drew a mixed reaction from politicians.

Germany's Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said the demonstrators should be in class.

And Australia's Education Minister Dan Tehan said striking was "not something that we should encourage."

World map showing the number of planned climate protests per country by

school students on Friday March 15. (AFP Photo/Sophie RAMIS)

But New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hailed the action, saying: "We hear you and we're getting on with setting a path for carbon neutrality."

"Please keep bringing as many people as you can with you because we simply won't achieve our goals alone."

Greenpeace praised the global protests, saying adults needed to learn a lesson.

"Imagine if their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles -- people with the power to vote for change -- were to make the same kind of effort," said John Sauven, head of Greenpeace UK.

"Grownups cheering on the school strikes are like footballers applauding the crowd. You're on the pitch. Score a goal, or at least assist."

The global demonstrations were started by a 16-year-old Swedish student who 

began skipping school to protest last year (AFP Photo/JOE KLAMAR)

In the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, students circulated a petition to be submitted to the government demanding concrete measures.

"The planet is heating up, the youth are rising up," they chanted.

'My eyes hurt from pollution'

The Paris treaty calls for capping global warming at "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) but the planet is currently on track to heat up by double that figure.

The UN's climate science panel warned in October that only a wholesale transformation of the global economy and consumer habits could forestall a catastrophe.

"My eyes hurt from pollution. My shirt gets dirty from dust," 13-year-old protester Shagun Kumari told AFP in Delhi.

"I want fresh air that won't harm my lungs and clean water to drink so that I don't keep falling sick."

#UPDATE Hundreds of thousands of young people skipped school across the globe to march through the streets for an international day of student protests aimed at pushing world leaders into action on climate change https://t.co/WNTA37l8bf

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 15 maart 2019