Sarah Birch:Text / Demi Perera:Photographs
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OTWO 04 / NOVEMBER 2019
Throughout the week of the 20 th - 27 th September,
millions of people across the globe took part in what
organisers called “the biggest climate mobilisation
in history”, with an estimated 7.6 million people in
185 countries marching in the youth-led Global Cli-
mate Strike.
For the first time since the student-led strikes be-
gan, adults were called upon to take part. Scientists,
trade unions, businesses, celebrities and millions of
students and parents from around the world, came
together to call for more action to be taken by gover-
nments to halt the climate crisis.
The biggest demonstrations took place on the
20 th September with over 4 million people marching
in cities such as New York, London, Sydney, Nairobi
and Bangkok. With Gibraltar and Spain also taking
part.
The international Global Climate Strikes began in
2015 when an independent group of students orga-
nised the first School Strike for Climate. Held on the
first day of the United Nations Climate Change Con-
ference, the protests focused on three points: 100%
clean energy; keeping fossil fuels in the ground
and helping climate refugees. This first strike saw
50,000 students from 100 countries take part.
Then, on 20 th August 2018, a young girl by the
name of Greta Thunberg decided to sit outside the
Riksgad of Sweden and not to attend school until
the 2018 Swedish General Elections. Holding a sign
that read “School Strike for Climate”, she announ-
ced her demands for the Swedish government to re-
duce carbon emissions as per the Paris Agreement.
The day before the general elections, she declared
that she would continue to strike every Friday until
the Swedish Government met these demands, which
spread globally as the “Fridays for Future” campaign.
Following the elections, she began to attend demons-
trations across Europe and has since been invited to
speak at Davos, the European Economic and Social
Committee and the United States Congress.
Greta has now become one of the seminal faces
and voices of climate change activism. Her fierce
commitment and direct speeches have launched her
into the global spotlight. As such, earlier this year
she was featured on the cover of Time magazine
which named her a “next-generation leader”.
Her influence is so widespread that parts of the
OTWO 04 / NOVEMBER 2019
media have coined her impact on the climate change
movement ‘the Greta effect’.
With the United Nations describing climate chan-
ge as the “defining issue of our time”, the strikes
were held to coincide with the UN Climate Action
Summit on 23 rd September. Greta made headlines
when she made the transatlantic trip to attend the
summit in a carbon-neutral racing yacht.
The 20 th September kicked off with massive gathe-
rings on the Pacific islands. Islands such as Samoa,
Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Fiji all called
for more action to prevent rising sea levels. The small
atoll states of Tuvalu and Kiribati also took part; with
students grasping placards bearing the phrase “We
are not sinking, we are fighting”. These small islands
are some of the most vulnerable places in the world
to the effects of climate change.
From New York, Greta hailed the scenes in Austra-
lia as “setting the standard”. Hundreds of towns and
cities held rallies with an estimated 350,000 people
across the country taking part. In Sydney and Mel-
bourne, tens of thousands took to the streets, likely
the vastest public demonstrations in the country sin-
ce the protests held against the 2003 Iraq War.
In Asia; hundreds marched across Japan and at
the Environment ministry building in Bangkok, Thai
protesters dropped to the ground feigning death and
demanding government action on climate issues.
Marches in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, among other big
cities in India saw 13,000 people protest across the country.
In Afghanistan, 100 young people marched in the
capital Kabul. Afghan security forces were deployed to
protect the group, which was led by young women from
a local climate action organisation called Oxygen.
Strikes also mobilised across multiple countries in
Africa, with 50,000 youth gathered in Luanda the ca-
pital of Angola, one of the biggest such protests ever
seen on the African continent. Hundreds also rallied
in Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal and a total of 5000
people were estimated to have taken part across
South Africa.
Europe held some of the biggest protests of the
week, with a staggering 1.4 million people joining
demonstrations in cities around Germany, with va-
rious companies such as Flixbus and GLS bank su-
pporting their workers to take part in the strikes.
Belfast, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Glasgow and
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