Activists with the youth-led Fridays for Future movement took to the streets worldwide Friday, calling for bolder efforts to battle the climate emergency and encouraging people of all ages to join the global #ClimateStrike on Sept. 20.
The environmental group 350.org looked to next week’s strikes in a statement Friday, saying that “huge demonstrations are expected across the globe with numbers surpassing the March 2019 record of 1.6 million people.” So far, climate campaigners have planned 3,459 events across 120 countries for a week of action that aligns with the United Nations Climate Action Summit.
“We are calling on everyone to join us,” Jerome Foster II, a youth climate activist and strike organizer, said at a press conference Thursday. “We need a truly diverse and multi-generational movement, made of people from all ages and backgrounds, not just the youth. We need adults to stand up and call for action and to support young people and do things that young people can’t do. We should be fighting for our future.”
“The good news is the fossil industry is beginning to lose the fight. We need to replace them now to keep temperature below 1.5 degrees,” said 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, referencing the lower target of the Paris climate agreement. “September 20th to 27th will be the biggest climate mobilization we have ever seen. The world is going to demonstrate that it is ready for a change.”
In an email to supporters of the youth-led Sunrise Movement Friday, 13-year-old Hadassah from Northwest Philadelphia wrote:
Just a day after Amnesty International secretary general Kumi Naidoo called on school administrations across the globe to let students to join the climate strikes planned for Sept. 20 and 27, the New York City public school system announced Thursday that it would excuse absences for students who secure permission from a parent to participate in the first global strike.
“The protection of the environment should not be a movement or a moment in time, it should be part of our culture,” New York-based Fridays for Future leader Xiye Bastida said at the Thursday press conference. “The youth are working towards this goal, and we need everyone to join us.”
Bastida was among the youth activists who protested outside the U.N. headquarters in NYC on Friday and took to social media to promote next week’s global strike.
Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg joined an 11-minute die-in outside the White House in Washington, D.C. on Friday, as young people with the global movement she helped launch also demonstrated in Argentina, Bangladesh, Germany, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Turkey, Uganda, and more countries around the world.