|
GLOBAL - Over 1.4 million young
students in more than 300 cities across all continents took to the
streets this March 15th on the first ever global climate strike.
Messages in more than 40 languages were loud and clear: world
leaders must act now to address the climate crisis and save our
future.
"The governments failed to respond
properly to the dramatic challenge of our climate crisis. Our
generation, the least responsible for the acts of the polluters,
will be the ones to see the most devastating impacts of climate
change. World leaders are losing the window to act, but we are not
gonna stand still watching their inertia." Greta Thunberg.
In Europe hundreds of thousands of school
strikes saw students leaving their classrooms and joining the
marches. France alone gathered 195 thousand in more than 110
cities.
In India, more than 15 cities were
involved in the strikes. In Colombia around 2.5 thousand gathered in
the streets of Bogotá whilst Cape Town reported 2000 and 1,000 in
Hong Kong.
Despite years of talks, governments have
lost many opportunities to commit to concrete action and the global
emission are reaching now an inevitable level.
The most recent UN Environment report,
released in Nairobi on Wednesday, estimates that winter temperatures
at the North Pole are likely to rise by at least 3oC above
pre-industrial levels by 2050. And that even if global emissions
were to halt overnight, winter temperatures in the Arctic would
still increase 4°C to 5°C by 2100 compared to the late 20th
century.
Over the coming months strikes are set to
continue across the globe,with organisers already planning the next
ones.
In September world leaders will be
gathered once again and will have a chance to come with concrete,
ambitious plans to reduce drastically their national emissions by
shifting off coal, oil and gas immediately. By doing that they will
show the young people that their voices were heard and that their
effort was not in vain.
###
QUOTE SHEET
“In India, no one talks about climate
change. You don’t see it on the news or in the papers or hear about
it from government. We want global leaders to declare a climate
emergency. If we don’t act today, then we will have no tomorrow. " -
Vidit Baya, 17, Udaipur, India.
"We face heartbreaking loss due to
increasingly extreme weather events. We urge the Taiwanese
government to implement mitigation measures and face up to the
vulnerability of indigenous people, halt construction projects in
the indigenous traditional realm, and recognise the legal status of
Plains Indigenous People, in order to implement environmental
protection as a bottom-up approach" - Kaisanan Ahuan, Puli City,
Taiwan.
"We have reached a point in history when
we have the technical capacities to solve poverty, malnutrition,
inequality and of course global warming. The deciding factors for
whether we take advantage of our potential will be our activism, our
international unity and our ability to develop the art of making the
impossible possible. Whether we succeed or not depends on our
political will" - Eyal Weintraub, 18, and Bruno Rodriguez, 18,
Argentina.
"I want to be certain that our government
is committed to investing in a just transition to a more sustainable
country, that we will lower carbon emissions and curb climate
change. I am joining this strike to demand that decisions are more
future-focused and that policy will reflect our environmental rights
as written in our constitution" - Dona Van Eeden, 21, Cape Town,
South Africa.
"The damage done by multinationals is
enormous: the lack of transparency, dubious contracts, the weakening
of the soil, the destruction of flora and fauna, the lack of respect
for mining codes, the contamination of groundwater. In Mali, the
state exercises insufficient control over the practices of the
multinationals, and it is us, the citizens, who suffer the
consequences. The climate alarm has sounded, and the time has come
for us all to realise that there is still time to act locally, in
our homes, our villages, our cities" - Mone Fousseny, 22, Mali.
CONTACTS
International
Linus Steinmetz
+49 176 47769929
linus.s...@climatestrike.net
Argentina
Eyal Weintraub
+5491122372323
Eyalwei...@gmail.com
Australia
SS4C Australia
+ 62 0427 485 233
schoolstri...@gmail.com
Austria
Maximilian Fuchslueger
+4369911239974
m.fuch...@gmail.com
Bangladesh
Sohanur Rahman
+8801628135670
sohanur...@savetheplanet.ngo
Belgium
Kyra Gantois
+32470300631
kyrag...@hotmail.com
Bulgaria
Valeria Kostova
+359 88 270 5996
valer1a...@gmail.com
Canada
Rebecca Hamilton
+1 778 321 8526
reba...@gmail.com
Chile
María Carvajal
+56998117617
mari.carva...@gmail.com
Czech Republic
Lucie Smolková
+420731363856
luk.sm...@gmail.com
Finland
Atte Ahokas
+358 0458738311
a.aho...@gmail.com
France
Youth For Climate France
Romaric Thurel
+33 7 83 61 84 51
thurel....@gmail.com
Martial Breton
CliMates
+33 6 73 16 18 73
martial...@gmail.com
Germany
Linus Steinmetz
+49 176 47769929
linus.s...@climatestrike.net
Hungary
Petra Buru
+36306096877
ribzli...@gmail.com
India
Baya Vidit
+91 8079066862
vidi...@gmail.com
Iran
Ali (Amirarian) Khademolhossei
+4917660891425
alikha...@gmail.com
Ireland
Saoi O’Connor
+353 083 891 6453
Sa...@FridaysForFuture.ie
Israel
Michael Backlund
+972547963227
michael.b...@gmail.com
Italy
David Wicker
+393497986443
davidwi...@gmail.com
Latvia
Laura Treimane
+37128288090
laura.t...@gmail.com
Lithuania
Oskaras Venckus
+37068954245
WWo...@gmail.com
Luxembourg
Zélie Guisset
+352671519484
ze...@guisset.name | 
