Climate Strikers Demand Climate Justice On 'Historic' Day Of Protest

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This story is part ofย Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climateย story.ย ย 

Millions of children and adults are expected to strike across the globe today, inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunbergโ€™s call for climateย action.ย 

The strikes are happening ahead of the UN Climate Summit, which is taking place in New York on 23ย September.ย 

Climate strikers are calling for a โ€œrapid revolutionโ€ to prevent global warming, with fossil fuelsย phased out fairly and swiftly and everyone has access to a safe future. The concept of โ€œclimate justiceโ€ is at the heart of their demands, so that vulnerable people aren’t hurt by the dramatic shifts required to transition to a zero carbonย world.

While the idea of school strikes began with students, todayโ€™s protest is supported by all sectors of society, with unions, politicians and headteachers all pledging theirย support.

Australia and theย Pacific

Some 300,000-400,000 people turned up in Australia to protest, with strikers posting images of packed streets in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, andย others.ย 

David Ritter, head of Greenpeace Australia-Pacific, hailed the โ€œhistoric turnoutโ€: It was, he said, โ€œthe largest climate rally in Australianย historyโ€.

The Adani mine was a major feature of the strikes in Australia. The controversial coal mine got its final approval in June this year. Young people assembled outside the offices of Australian environment minister Sussan Ley, chanting โ€œStopย Adaniโ€.ย 

Protesters also showed up across the small island states dotted throughout the Pacific. For many of these low-lying islands, climate change is already an existential threat, thanks to rising sea levels. The NGO 350-Pacific posted images of strikes across several of these small nations, including Kiribati, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands โ€” in the latter case, with activists arriving from neighbouring islands byย boat.ย 

Asia

There have also been strikes acrossย Asia.ย 

Journalists posted photos of marches taking place in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Local newsย reportedย that thousands of children had gathered in the city to urge world leaders to act on climateย change.

In India, children chanted โ€œI want to breathe clean!โ€ while standing outside the Ministry of Housing and Affairs in New Delhi. The city has a seriousย air pollution problem, thanks to vehicles and industry, as well as dust from building sites and smoke from burning waste.ย In Amritsar, a solo striker proved true Gretaโ€™s mantra that โ€œno one is too small to make aย differenceโ€.

In Tokyo, Japan, protesters assembled at 5:00 p.m. local time (does that make it a strike? Iโ€™m not sure), and marched as darkness fell. The local Fridays For Future group encouraged its protesters to wear green. It seems to have been more muted than the protests taking place in other major cities, however.ย Greenpeace Japan said that just 2,800 people turnedย up.

Africa

At least seven strikes took place around Nigeria. The BBC reports that turnout in Lagos, the countryโ€™s largest city, was low, with around only 30 protesters. But in the capital city of Abuja, hundreds turned up to the strike. One Nigerian youth activist wrote that today marked her 45th week of protesting for the Fridays for Futureย movement.

Photos showed a large turnout in South Africa, including in Cape Town, Durban, andย Johannesburg.

According to a journalist in Uganda, children not only joined the protest there but also planted trees. Another video showed a large march taking place through Wakisoย District.

UK

Strikes have been taking place throughout Europeย today.ย 

DeSmog’s Soila Apparicio has been meeting protesters in London, UK. Read her report, and see her photos, here.ย 

The issue of climate justice seems to have become really cemented in protesters’ย demands. โ€œIt’s an issue that deeply affects those who are poor and people of colour especially,โ€ one striker toldย Soila.ย 

Politicians joined in the fray: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn joined the demonstration in central London, and Green MP Caroline Lucas addressed theย crowds.ย 

โ€œThe failure to act to avert climate catastrophe is the greatest moral failure of our times, and when people look back at this time, it won’t be those blockading roads or striking from school that history judges badly. It will be those that shut their eyes and blocked their ears,โ€ said Lucas, toย cheers.ย 

Thousands of people also took part in the capitals of Scotland andย Wales.

In Edinburgh, the Scottish Green Party declared the day of action โ€œeasily one of the biggest marches ever seen at the Scottishย Parliamentโ€.

Around 2,000 people marched through Cardiff, arriving at the Senedd (the National Assembly for Wales) to demand action. Sophie Howe, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, accused the government of failing to fund action to tackle the recently-declared climateย emergency.

โ€œIt is still our younger generations who are leading the debate and holding governments to account on their lack of action to combat climate change,โ€ sheย said.

Jeremy Leggett posted this video with a note: โ€œWhere indeed is the government? I find it agonising to imagine being in the minds of these kids. My God, how my generation has let them down. I and many of my compadres have fought to save them from the worst excesses of global heating and the climate chaos it causes. But we have been pretty ineffectual, and so many others seem to care little or nothing about their future. Time to let the younger generation reset the rulebook, Iย think.โ€

Europe

Strikers in Berlin are, of course, extra cool. โ€œIf you don’t jump, you’re for coal,โ€ say two bouncing men on a stage, in front of a hundred thousand bouncing people belowย them.ย 

While thousands of people are protesting across other cities in Germany, my favourite protest staged by a German has to be this: a lonely Antarctica striker (At least, I haven’t seen any others.) This picture was posted by Fridays for Future Germany.

Berlin didn’t have a monopoly on climate strike dancing. According to Greenpeace Poland, thousands of young people from 68 Polish towns turned out to strike today. In Warsaw, 10,000 young people marched through the streets and ended with a dance party in front of the Palace ofย Culture.ย 

In Russia,ย the atmosphere was more muted. Protesters in Moscow could not get approval for a rally, so instead had to queue up for individual pickets, which did not require permission. Other cities apparently did give permission, according to Greenpeaceย Russia.ย 

Still, the restrictive atmosphere didn’t stop the Moscow employees of the NGO, who posed with a #climatemergency banner. โ€œIt remains to get agreement ๐Ÿ™‚ ,โ€ they tweetedย cheerfully.ย 

And now, with the day drawing to a close in Europe, I am going to pass over to Ashley Braun, who will report on strikes across theย pond.

U.S.

DC Capitol Building climate strike
Climate strikers gather outside the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

Things are getting warmed up under perfect blue skies in Washington, D.C.,ย where crowds have been amassing at the Capitol Building with plenty ofย politically charged signs, as well as calls for a Green New Deal to address climate change with a just transition away from fossilย fuels.

A divided Congress, the House dominated by Democratsย and the Senate by Republicans, was implored by protesters to โ€œDo your jobs!โ€ Yesterday, Senate Democratsย released a list of climate studies buried by the Trump administration, from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the U.S. Department ofย Agriculture.

According to the New York Times, the New York mayor’s office estimated this afternoon that tens of thousands of demonstrators poured through the city’s streets, which years earlier were flooded by Hurricane Sandy. The teen who inspired the school strikes movement, Greta Thunberg, who sailed to the U.S. to attend Monday’s UN Climate Action Summit, spoke to the energeticย masses.

โ€œThis is the biggest climate strike in the history of the world,โ€ sheย declared.

Climate demonstrators in Madison, Wisconsin, took over the state capitol, chanting, โ€œPeople, not profitsโ€ beneath theย rotunda.

Thousands in Seattle, Washington, marched to city hall, withย calls that โ€œThis is what democracy looks like!โ€ The climate strikers included an estimated 3,000 tech workers from companies such as Amazon and Google, who took their employers to task for contributing to the climateย crisis.

Outside Amazon’s iconic glass-and-steel greenhouseย known as โ€œThe Spheres,โ€ near their Seattle headquarters, CNN reports that strikers had pointed messages for their employers, including โ€œGreat start, Jeff,โ€ reportedly โ€œa reference to an announcementย CEO Jeff Bezosย made on Thursday that Amazon plans to be carbon neutral byย 2040.โ€

Mainย image: Climate strikers at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

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