It started with Greta Thunberg, the 16-years-old Swedish girl with long braids who refused to go to school. Instead, she sat down in front of the Swedish parliament to fight climate crisis. Almost every Friday since August she brought her handwritten placard “Skolstrejk för klimatet” protesting. What is the point of going to school if there is no future?
That Autumn, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned us saying we have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe. If not, there will be worsening wildfires, extreme heat, food shortages, floods, drought, more poverty, sea-level rise, and completely eradicated corals in 2040. Greta Thunberg had just seen hundreds of wildfires in Sweden that summer, with drought and record-breaking temperatures in Europe. Her strike began to spread under the hashtags #FridaysForFuture and #climatestrike.
Inspired by the young activist, now nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, school kids all around the world took to the streets last Friday to demand politicians act on climate change. To save the future. It is believed that more than 1,4 million students skipped school that day, in over 2000 places and in 125 countries. A world record that is.
In Buenos Aires, hundreds of teenagers gathered in front of the Congress building at 5 o’clock. Climate activists held posters saying “S.O.S.”, “There is no PLANet B”, “We are killing ourself”, “The future has to be vegan”, “There is no more time”, and “There is more plastic than common sense”. About 20 Kulturstudier-students went to join the protest, many of them studying CSR, Corporate social responsibility.
-Hilda-