Greta Thunberg drags a giant demonstration against the climate crisis in New York

A gigantic demonstration with the participation of thousands of young students, largely teenagers, has toured the streets of New York. The Greta effect has reached the headquarters of the United Nations, where the special summit against climate change is held on Monday, with the participation of dozens of heads of government.

From the Pacific to the Arctic, Uganda, Tokyo, Hamburg, Brussels and Peshawar, large crowds of young people joined the “Global Climate Strike” to demand action from generations to combat the climate catastrophe. Announced.

Hundreds of thousands of students from around the world have mobilized this Friday in 2,900 cities in 160 countries around the world to demand more determined and urgent action against climate change.

The young people began their protests every Friday months ago and, after the summer, this September 20 they have demonstrated again. They have thus kicked off the Global Climate Action Week, which will take place coinciding with the Climate Action Summit to be held on Monday in New York.

In New York, protesters have made their way to Battery Park, where the Swedish Greta Thunberg, the true alma mater of the youth movement demanding climate justice, was waiting for him, among others.

With slogans such as “Save our Planet”, “we can’t say we didn’t know”, “there is no plan B” or “it’s science, stupid”, young people are leading a protest in Manhattan that has had its replicas in another thousand locations in the United States.

Protesters have handed out T-shirts, posters and banners with slogans that invited to protect the planet. New York authorities announced that approximately 1.1 million students planned to participate in the student strike

Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg, who inspired climate protests around the world, has expressed hope that this demonstration will be a “turning point” in climate policies.

“Millions of participants”

Without knowing the exact number of participants in these demonstrations, Thunberg said she was delighted that there were “millions of participants.”

“The numbers are incredible; when you see the images, it’s hard to believe,” the 16-year-old activist said during an interview at New York City Hall, before taking part in the grand Parade in New York.

Among the students who gathered in New York’s Foley Square was Alexandria Villasenor, a 14-year-old who has been striking in the vicinity of the UN every Friday since Dec. 14.

“We are telling adults to step up and support us with our strikes because we need everyone to tell leaders at the global climate summit that they need to take climate action,” he said.

The whole planet

The global student strike began in the Pacific Islands and was followed in Australia, Japan, Southeast Asia and then to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and America.

“It’s not just about my future, but the future of my entire generation and all the generations that will come after ours,” said Tristan Vancleef, 16, one of the 15,000 protesters who marched through central Brussels.

In Germany, thousands of Germans have demonstrated at 570 events in several cities of the country. According to data from Fridays For Future Germany activists, more than 270,000 people have taken part in Berlin, while in Cologne and Hamburg some 70,000 took to the streets to demonstrate.

In Munich and Hanover the protest drew 25,000 participants, but also in smaller German cities, such as Münster and Freiburg, some 20,000 people were registered. Protesters expressed their discontent with climate policy through banners with slogans such as “You fell asleep, we’ve woken up,” or “Short-haul flights are just for bees.”

Meanwhile, in Brussels, a demonstration supported by organizations, associations and unions has had the participation of about 15,000 people, according to official estimates of the Police of the Belgian capital.

The march departed at 1:00 p.m. at a train station located north of the city and ended in a park near the neighborhood of the European institutions. In its route it has caused cuts in the circulation of some of the busiest streets and tunnels in Brussels. “This is not only the second season of mobilizations,” warned the Belgian spokeswoman of the Youth For Climate association, Anuna De Weber, who has advanced a series of new actions together with “workers, farmers and scientists,” according to the newspaper ‘La Libre Belgique’

In addition, coinciding with the climate demonstrations called around the world, the Coalition Climat association has sent a letter to the acting Prime Minister, Charles Michel, in which it demands a greater ambition of the country in this matter, that Belgium double its contribution to the Green Climate Fund and that the Government design a plan for a just transition towards a decarbonized society.

End to end

The mobilizations began in the easternmost part of the planet this Friday in countries such as India, Pakistan, Australia, Europe and at the end of the day the marches will cross the Atlantic and will be held in numerous cities of the American continent.

Social media showed dozens of demonstrations, from a few dozen primary school children in Abuja, Nigeria, to tens of thousands of people in cities from Hamburg, Germany, to Melbourne, Australia.

In scattered Pacific communities, students carrying banners in Kiribati chanted, “We’re not sinking, we’re fighting.”

By mid-afternoon in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, crowds had gathered in many cities, including London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Warsaw, Stockholm, Helsinki, Beirut, Nairobi and Cape Town. Protests also began in many U.S. cities, including New York and Washington D.C.

In Stockholm, crowds gathered in front of the Swedish parliament, where Thunberg began her school strike protests last year.

“Our oceans are rising, so are we,” was a popular slogan on posters in many places, including one worn by a student in school uniform in Melbourne and another wearing a girl wearing a face mask in Kolkata, in eastern India.

Mitigation strategies

Global warming caused by greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels has already resulted in severe climatic effects, such as droughts and heat waves, melting glaciers, sea level rises, floods, among other extreme events.

Carbon emissions hit a record high last year, despite a warning from the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last October called for a 45% reduction in emissions by 2030.

Increasing pressure

The protest movement is putting increasing pressure on governments and businesses, who are being called upon to take more urgent action to address the problem.

The UN summit next week brings together world leaders to discuss climate change mitigation strategies and will host proposals to foster a transition that paves the way to renewable energy sources from fossil fuels.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are the only national leaders in the world who publicly question climate science, they should not participate, their representatives said.

The issue of global warming is vital for the low-lying Pacific islands, which have repeatedly called on wealthier nations to do more to prevent sea level rise.

In Spain, the young people of Fridays For Future, supported by four platforms and 300 social organizations, have starred in marches and events in cities throughout Spain.

Source: The Vanguard