Activists
Students gather to demand the government take action on climate change at Martin Place on Nov. 30, 2018 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
In 92 countries and counting, hundreds of thousands of students are planning to skip school on March 15 as part of the “School Strike 4 Climate”—a growing movement of young people demanding that policymakers worldwide take urgent and radical steps to battle the climate crisis.
“I think we are only seeing the beginning. I think that change is on the horizon and the people will stand up for their future.”
—Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist
For the past several months, students around the world have joined the #FridaysForFuture school strike launched last year by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, whose solitary protests outside her country’s parliament—inspired by the Parkland students advocating for stricter gun laws in the United States—generated headlines that helped spur the global youth climate movement.
“I think we are only seeing the beginning. I think that change is on the horizon and the people will stand up for their future,” Thunberg told the Guardian about the mass mobilization planned for March 15. “It’s going to be very, very big internationally, with hundreds of thousands of children going to strike from school to say that we aren’t going to accept this any more.”
Here’s how to get involved:
Visit FridaysForFuture.org for more information.
Find a protest near you (U.S. protests here).
Plan and register your own protest.
Check out this 350.org resource page: “5 ways you can support the school climate strikes.”
Spread support on social media with the hashtags #FridaysForFuture, #ClimateStrike, and #SchoolStrike4Climate.
Although the movement has elevated public demands for coordinated global efforts to cut planet-warming emissions generated from human activity, Thunberg added: “I am not more hopeful than when I started. The emissions are increasing and that is the only thing that matters. I think that needs to be our focus. We cannot talk about anything else.”