Climate Change: "Our Generation Will Suffer," Thousands of UK Students Join Climate Strike

- 'Our Generation Will Suffer': Tens of Thousands of Students From 60+ UK Communities Join Climate Strike. "I've come here to demand that the government address climate change as the crisis & the emergency that it is." Common Dreams, Feb. 15, 19.



- Students protesting in London say politicians are not taking enough action on climate change.

Tens of thousands of students from more than 60 communities across the United Kingdom skipped class on Friday to join the global youth-led #schoolstrike4climate, calling on world leaders to take bolder steps to eradicate fossil fuels and combat the climate crisis. Speaking to Sky News in London's Parliament Square on Friday, 12-year-old Theo said he is striking "because there are people in that building over there, going in week in and week out, and completely declining the fact that our world is dying out."

Theo added that he thinks U.K. legislators, who are failing to take necessary steps to address the crisis, "are completely obsessed...with money" and "are completely disregarding...the world." Pointing to rising temperatures and visible changes in the global climate, Theo's 11-year-old friend said he joined the strike because, "it's sort of scary to think about that when I'm older there might not be a North Pole or maybe no rainforest or anything."

The striking students carried signs that warned "our generation will suffer," and asked, "the climate is changing, why aren't we?" Chants across the country ranged from "whose streets, our streets," and "we want change," to "fuck Theresa May"—the Tory prime minister who criticized the demonstrations via a spokesperson. .

"I've always had a strong fascination with the environment, and I've always been aware of climate change and sustainable living, but when I saw thousands of kids around the world striking for the cause it inspired me to start my own," 17-year-old Anna Taylor, a co-founder of the U.K. Student Climate Network, the group coordinating the country's strike, told the New York Times. "Youth voices are too often left out of the discussion when it comes to climate change."—Jake Woodier, U.K. Youth Climate Coalition

"While we're failing to deliver the changes young people need, we can hardly blame them for taking action themselves. Education has today been flipped on its head. The young are teaching the old, and we should pay attention," Greenpeace U.K. executive director John Sauven said in a statement to the Guardian. "Young people know that their lives are going to be changed dramatically by the impacts of climate change. "And the longer the young wait for action to be taken, the harder it will be for them in future." More..

Read More, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/15/our-generation-will-suffer-tens-thousands-students-60-uk-communities-join-climate



- Students in Whitehall block Downing Street.