A Swedish group from a school on Öckerö, an island on the archipelago, say they did a class assignment on Greta Thunberg, Sweden’s 16-year-old climate activist who has now become a world-famous figure. As a result, they were inspired to organise today’s protest, in defiance of their headmaster.
“Swedes fly five times more than the global average,” said Clara Sahlsten, 15. “We consume too much, we are part of the problem.”
Prime minister Stefan Löfven yesterday pledged to “work hard” to meet striking students’ demands.
“I think it is extremely good that initiatives are taken to raise the climate issue,” he said. “It must be higher on the agenda and these young people are really passionate about this … I want a people’s movement for climate change, and here we are on our way.”
School students protesting in the central square in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second city. Photograph: David Crouch/Guardian
Schoolchildren have marched through central Reykjavik before congregating at the Hallgrimskirkja cathedral that looms above the city. While other nations are threatened by sea level rise, Iceland is actually growing as a result of climate change. A study four years ago found the country was rising by about 1.4 inches a year as ice caps melt – but warned that the geological changes could be accompanied by more volcanic eruptions.
The size of the London crowd and the spontaneous route taken by the children – first past Downing Street and then down The Mall to Buckingham Palace – seemed to take police by surprise. Officers scrambled to prevent the youngsters, who were chanting “we want change”, reaching the Queen’s residence but the crowd was too big.
Outside the Palace the protesters set up an impromptu sound system and continued to demand urgent action. At one point a cheer went up from the crowd as an elderly figure could be seen looking out from behind the net curtain in a second floor window. After half an hour the strikers set off again, this time staging a sit down protest in Whitehall before heading back to Parliament Square.
The strikers then blocked all the roads leading onto Trafalgar Square, bringing widespread disruption to central London.
Holding their handmade sign that reads “Mum gonna kill me for being here but not before climate change”, 17-year-olds Erin and Ailsa have come to the Scottish parliament with about 20 other pupils from their high school 10 miles out of the city.
“It’s our future and if we don’t stand up then who will?” asks Erin.
“I want politicians to stop treating us like silly little kids”, says Ailsa. “A lot of adults don’t take this seriously”.
Both are surprised at the numbers of school strikers who have assembled outside the Holyrood parliament to chant and wave colourful placards in the typically Scottish weather of sunshine and cold showers.
Police estimate there are about 2,000 young people here, in good spirits and eager to explain their reasons for being here.
16-year-old Ben Hickman from Trinity Academy to the north of the city says: “It’s a big problem because people take the planet for granted and don’t know what’s actually happening.”
He says most of his information about the strike has come from social media. “A lot of people have been talking about it this week but I’m still surprised to see so many of them here.”
Sophie Sleeman has written an opinion piece on the power of the student strikes.
In ant colonies, large populations are sustained through the interactions between individual ants. There is little centralised authority in the most resilient colonies. On social media, teenagers have also been swept up in self-organisation, spreading their message from group to group, country to country, with the only central authority being the collective fear we all share.
Students have been protesting outside the energy ministry in Kiev. According to the Climate Action Tracker, Ukraine’s policies to tackle climate change are “critically insufficient” to help keep warming within 2C above pre-industrial levels.
Students strike for action on climate change in Kiev. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Ukrainians strike for climate change action in Kiev. Photograph: Stepan Franko/EPA
“From following the Pied Piper into a medieval forest to sailing off with Pinocchio to Pleasure Island to shoplifting candy from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, children tend to make bad choices, which is why we don’t let them run things,” says Paul Tice, one of the people not cheering on the young people striking for climate action today.
In an opinion article for The Wall Street Journal, Tice, an investment manager and professor of finance at New York University, says: “In the summer of 1212, thousands of divinely inspired young people from across Catholic France and Germany took off to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims. None made it to the Holy Land. Many died along the way or were sold into slavery. The Children’s Crusade was a disaster. Yet environmental activists and politicians are adopting the same ‘a child shall lead them’ strategy to push their climate change agenda.”
The opinion pages of the WSJ are of course no stranger to the denial of the dangers of global warming, and Tice does not disappoint: “Anthropogenic global warming is a highly politicised, scientifically complex issue that still requires debate despite the purported consensus.”
But the youth strikers appear to have scientists on their side. More than 23,000 German, Austrian and Swiss scientists have signed a statement concluding: “Only by acting swiftly and consistently can we limit global warming, stop the mass extinction of plant and animal species, preserve the natural foundations of life, and create a liveable future for present and future generations. This is exactly what the young people want to achieve from Fridays for Future. They deserve our respect and our full support.”
Poland is one of Europe’s biggest polluters, largely because of its reliance on coal-fired power stations. During the COP24 conference it hosted last year in Katowice, in the country’s mining heartland, president Andrzej Duda said the country had 200 years’ worth of coal reserves and “it will be hard not to use them.”
However, cities across the country have seen enormous turnouts of striking students, from Warsaw to Krakow to Katowice.
Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg participates in a demonstration in central Stockholm. Photograph: TT News Agency/Reuters
Hundreds of school students have gathered in Stockholm’s central square, most of them inspired by local girl Greta Thunberg, 16, who started her school strike last summer outside Sweden’s parliament.
Since then her single-minded determination has inspired millions around the world, and earned a nomination this week for the Nobel peace prize.
When Greta appeared before the crowd a few minutes ago, they started chanting “GRETA, GRETA, GRETA”.
“We have been born into this world and we have to live with this crisis, and our children and our grandchildren,” she said to applause and cheers.
“We are facing the greatest existential crisis humanity has ever faced. And yet it has been ignored. You who have ignored it know who you are.”
School students are taking action today in 114 Swedish towns and cities, according to local media.
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