Students of all ages flooded lower Manhattan on Friday demanding world leaders mobilize to combat the increasingly dire climate crisis. The demonstration was part of the Global Climate Strike, which brought young people and advocates into the streets in thousands of cities worldwide to protest political inaction.
New York City’s march was led by renowned Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, who arrived in the U.S. late last month after a two-week journey across the Atlantic in a solar-powered yacht in an effort to draw attention to her cause.
“We are striking because business as usual is a death sentence to those already on the frontlines of the climate breakdown, as well as generations to come,” said Sophia Geiger, the national coordinator of Thunberg’s Fridays For Future advocacy group. “We owe it to our planet and to ourselves to fight for a better future with everything that we have.”
New York City public schools — the largest school district in the nation — excused absences on Friday, making way for more than 1.1 million students to participate if they desired. “New York City stands with our young people. They’re our conscience,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The demonstration was organized by a coalition of youth advocacy groups, which included Friday’s For Future, Earth Uprising, and the Sunrise Movement. Several other larger organizations, like Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, also participated. “We thought someone else was going to solve this,” Grace Goldstein, 17, one of the organizers, told Cheddar. “But the fight has come to us. There is no one else.”
Katie Eder, the executive director of the Future Coalition, another one of the main organizing nonprofits, added that “elected officials and world leaders have shown us that they do not yet have the courage to take the action necessary to save the planet on their own. And so we must show them.”
The youth leaders put forth a number of policy demands, which include transitioning the U.S. economy to 100 percent renewable energy sources, strengthening protections against deforestation and ocean pollution, and creating a more sustainable food system, among several others.
“It is our generation that will be affected the most,” Alessandro Dal Bon, a 15-year-old organizer from New York, told Cheddar. “We will suffer the worst consequences.”
Several schools, faith groups, and youth organizations also brought young people to participate in the march. Sister Theresa Scanlon, of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Brooklyn, told Cheddar the march was “just too important to miss.”
“We wondered if they were too young, but they wanted to come — they insisted,” said Barbara Anderson, a 5th grade teacher at the Pine Street School in Manhattan. The crowd, which swelled to several thousands, chanted slogans such as “The sea is rising and so are we!” and “Save our earth, save our future!”
Across the U.S., students marched in over 1,000 cities in all 50 states and all U.S. territories, according to organizers. Demonstrators in Puerto Rico had an especially meaningful march through San Juan as Friday marked the two year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island and killed over 3,000 people.
“This shouldn't be our job, but now it is,” Angus, a 14-year-old student from Manhattan, told Cheddar.
Demonstrations on Friday also took place in over 150 countries in thousands of cities, including Islamabad, Melbourne, Abuja, Brussels, and Santiago.
The global strike was planned to coincide with the United Nations' Climate Action Summit on September 23, which will bring together the signatories of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on world leaders to gather "with concrete, realistic plans" on combating the climate crisis, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and keeping the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius.
The UN Secretariat has also been receptive to incorporating youth voices into the climate summit — seemingly to help pressure member nations to act on the issue.
"There are many issues that young people are concerned about, but one key issue is the struggle for survival," Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, told Cheddar this week. "This is not just about young people taking to the streets and demanding action from elders, but saying 'Hey, we are stepping up and we are doing our part. What are you doing about it?'”
Dozens of private companies also expressed their support for the youth activists. Companies ranging from Ben & Jerry’s to Lush Cosmetics to Patagonia all closed a number of stores around the world Friday in solidarity. Hundreds of employees from major tech companies like Amazon and Google also took to the streets to show their support, and renew their effort to increase the sustainability practices of their behemoth employers.
Additionally, more than 6,000 websites and digital companies came together to launch a “Digital Climate Strike” on Friday. Participants, which included major sites like Tumblr and WordPress, all agreed to donate ad space for the cause and promote the strike on social media and on their homepages.
This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story.
