Photo Credit: (Under Creative Commons license) Climate activist Greta Thunberg in Paris, 22 Feb. 2019 by Stephanie P.
More than a million young people around the world took part in school strikes for climate action during the week of March 15, according to the Fridays for Future movement.
“There were at least 1.6 million strikers on all seven continents, in more than 125 countries and in well over 2,000 places,” reported the group, which plans further strikes.
The Fridays for Future group formed after Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish student, began protesting to try and convince Sweden to comply with the U.N. Paris Agreement on climate change. In August, she staged sit-ins every school day for three weeks, to protest the lack of action.
She has since gained a global following, including on social media where followers use hashtags #FridaysForFuture and #SchoolStrike4Climate.
In December, Thunberg spoke at U.N. COP 24 climate talks in Katowice, Poland and delivered a TEDx talk which has been viewed more than a million times.
“Instead of looking for hope, look for action, then and only then hope will come,” Thunberg said. “The rules have to change. Everything needs to change and it has to start today.”
Learn more about Fridays for Future here.
Climate strikes around the world: As it happened, on the Guardian here.
Greta Thunberg interviewed on CNN here.
