Students around the world walked out of classrooms today to raise awareness of recent severe weather outbreaks, clean energy options, concerns about climate change, and inaction by government leaders on these topics. The event unfolded first in New Zealand and Australia as March 15th arrived around the world.
The event found its inspiration from 16 year old Greta Thunberg. Last August, Thunberg began staging weekly sit-ins outside the Swedish Parliament every Friday to raise awareness of her concerns about climate change. She’s encouraged children around the world to skip school on Fridays and hold their own climate-related strikes. Last November, she spoke at TEDxStockholm and in December, she addressed the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Around the globe, students concentrated their efforts around March 15 of this year. In schools around the world, students emptied classrooms to take to the streets in their communities to protest.
One of the larger first protests of the day occurred in Sydney, Australia. There, thousands of students left school at noon to join a rally outside Town Hall. In some cases, parents kept kids at home for the day so they could work on protest signs together and walk to their local march.
We asked parents why they took their kids out of school today to join the #climatestrike in #Sydney #australia #climate #weather #climatechange pic.twitter.com/AN6lmEBv1G
— the Weatherboy (@theWeatherboy) March 15, 2019
Paul Oosting, the National Director of GetUp, an Australian progressive action group, shared his thoughts on the Sydney event with one of our meteorologists embedded in the protest. GetUp members promote a progressive agenda around environmental justice, human rights, economic fairness , and democratic integrity in Australia. Oosting was pleased with the turn-out there, which brought out school children and their parents for afternoon rally.
We caught up with @PaulOosting, the National Director for @GetUp, at the #Sydney #ClimateChangeStrike to get his thoughts on protest in @Australia #weather #climate pic.twitter.com/xILwlOLiA1
— the Weatherboy (@theWeatherboy) March 15, 2019
Students at the Sydney event waved their posters while shouting a variety of chants on topics ranging from fossil fuel use, clean water, severe weather, and climate change.
But not everyone is onboard with the climate strike concept. Australia’s Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, told Parliament on Monday that “Kids should be in school. We don’t think schools should be turned into parliaments”. He added, “We want more learning in schools and less activism in schools.” Others agree, saying children are being used as pawns in a debate they have little knowledge about.
One protester’s sign disagreed with that assessment; it said, “Sorry, have to miss school and save the world today.”
