On March 15, hundreds of thousands of high school and middle school students around the world will walk out of school to demand immediate government action to reverse the global climate crisis. As of Sunday March 10, over 950 protests were planned in more than 80 countries. A partial list is included below.
In an op-ed published in the British newspaper The Guardian, the global coordination group of the youth-led climate strike wrote:
- We, the young, are deeply concerned about our future. Humanity is currently causing the sixth mass extinction of species and the global climate system is at the brink of a catastrophic crisis. Its devastating impacts are already felt by millions of people around the globe. Yet we are far from reaching the goals of the Paris agreement.
- Young people make up more than half of the global population. Our generation grew up with the climate crisis and we will have to deal with it for the rest of our lives. Despite that fact, most of us are not included in the local and global decision-making process. We are the voiceless future of humanity.
- We will no longer accept this injustice. We demand justice for all past, current and future victims of the climate crisis, and so we are rising up. Thousands of us have taken to the streets in the past weeks all around the world. Now we will make our voices heard. On 15 March, we will protest on every continent.
- We finally need to treat the climate crisis as a crisis. It is the biggest threat in human history and we will not accept the world’s decision-makers’ inaction that threatens our entire civilisation. We will not accept a life in fear and devastation. We have the right to live our dreams and hopes. Climate change is already happening. People did die, are dying and will die because of it, but we can and will stop this madness.
- We, the young, have started to move. We are going to change the fate of humanity, whether you like it or not. United we will rise until we see climate justice. We demand the world’s decision-makers take responsibility and solve this crisis.
- You have failed us in the past. If you continue failing us in the future, we, the young people, will make change happen by ourselves. The youth of this world has started to move and we will not rest again.
Sixteen-year old Greta Thunberg of Sweden, one of the international leaders of the student movement for climate action explains the decision to strike. “We have to understand the emergency of the situation. Our leadership has failed us. Young people must hold older generations accountable for the mess they have created. We need to get angry, and transform that anger into action.”
In New York City protests will take place at the United Nations Headquarters at 1st Ave and 46th Street (time to be announced). Since December, 13-year-old Alexandria Villaseñor has skipped classes regularly to occupy a bench outside the United Nations headquarters with a sign proclaiming “School Strike 4 Climate.” She is among the leading organizers of the March 15 strikes planned in the United States. According to Alexandria, “We are calling it the ‘School Shutdown Strike for Climate’ because our goal is to get so many students striking that we shut down the schools for a day!”
In Ireland, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the country’s prime minister, announced that he supports students going on strike as part of a global action on climate change. According to Varadkar, “The fact that young people are taking action, protesting and are going to strike and take a break from school on 15 March is good . . . These are young people standing up to adults. They are children, pupils and students telling all the adults in all parties to get our act together and to do more about climate change because it is their future that is in jeopardy.” However British Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the protests because they “increases teachers’ workloads and wastes lesson time that teachers have carefully prepared for.” In Australia, an education minister threatened to punish students who strike on March 15.
Follow the Facebook page for Global Strike for the Future and the webpage 350.org. 350.org is named after the 350 parts per million which is the safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A Global Youth Climate Action Summit is planned for New York City on Saturday, April 20, at The New School in Manhattan. According to its website, “Participants will have the opportunity to collaborate and build alliances, to take the lead in mobilizing the world to end the climate crisis. The summit is for people ages 15-21. The day is comprised of three sessions and to attend the summit is to attend all three. Lunch will be provided.”
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Tentative Strike Assembling Points
In Barcelona and Madrid, Spain, Berlin, Germany, The Hague, Netherlands, Lagos, Nigeria, Lima, Peru, Lisbon, Portugal, London, UK, Montreal, Canada, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Rome, Italy, Seoul, South Korea, Stockholm, Sweden, and Sydney, Australia students assemble at town hall.
In Copenhagen, Denmark, Dublin, Ireland, Helsinki, Finland, Ottawa, Canada, Iceland Reykjavík, Iceland, Santiago, Chile, and Vienna, Austria, students assemble in front of Parliament.
Also in alphabetical order:
Accra, Ghana: Meet at the Ododiodio Spots of the Accra Schools Circuit.
Alexandria, Egypt: Assemble at the Alexandria Governorate shallalat garden.
Bamako, Mali: Commune 4, Quartié Lafiabougou
Brussels, Belgium: Brussels North railway station.
Buenos Aires, Argentina: Congreso de la Nación.
Cape Town, South Africa: Belville Civic Centre
Christchurch, New Zealand: Cathedral Square
Geneva, Switzerland: Palais des Nations
Hong Kong, China: Meet in Charter Garden and walk to the Central Government Building.
Istanbul, Turkey: Bebek Park
Melbourne, Australia: Old Treasury Building.
Mexico City, Mexico: Assemble Mexico City Zocalo and march to Monumento a la Revolución
Mumbai, India: Maharashtra Amity University
Paris, France: Ministère de la transition écologique, Collège Lycée Montaigne Paris, and the National Assembly
Tehran, Iran: Theran University
Tel Aviv, Israel: Yafo
Warsaw, Poland: Ministry of Energy