Climate change and environmental issues are complicated. And if you have young children, it can be difficult to explain exactly what's going on. DW tries to answer some of the big questions.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/N. Harnik
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A lot of people are talking about climate change, and a lot of people are very worried about it. Children and grown-ups are protesting and you might hear some scary things about the future. People don’t know yet how things will turn out in 10 years, 20 years or a 100 years from now.
But there are things we can do. One of the most important things, is to understand what the problem is, how we all play a role in causing it — and how we can all play a role in solving it.
1. Why are so many children skipping school?
Kids are worried. They're not happy that the adults in charge — those who should be making our lives better — seem to be ignoring the problem of climate change, or just not doing enough to stop the world from getting too hot.
Students hope that by walking out of school with banners and megaphones, and getting together with other people who want things to change, that their voices will be heard. They want the politicians, those people who make the big decisions, to get together and come up with solutions to climate change and find a way to fix the damage we've done.
World leaders met and agreed that they would do that. But so far, they haven't done enough to stop our planet from getting dangerously hot.
2. And what exactly is climate change?
That's a tricky one. Plenty of adults don't understand a lot of the details about climate change. It's a problem caused by "greenhouse gases."
Student climate strikes go global
In some 2,000 demonstrations in 123 countries, more than 1 million students marched through the streets from the South Pacific to the edge of the Arctic Circle. Their aim: to push world leaders to act on climate change.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Remiorz
'If you don't act like adults, we will'
Thousands of students walked out of class in Sydney, kicking off global protests on Friday. They got the attention they wanted. Some Australian politicians hit back with criticism. "For action on issues that they think is important, they should do that after school or on weekends," said Education Minister Dan Tehan.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/S. Khan
Students bring grown-ups into line
Protesters in New Zealand invited adults to join the march. "If we go on strike on a school day, then they'll notice and they might want to do something," said 14-year-old student Inese, who didn't want to give her full name. And her prime minister is listening. Jacinda Ardern supports the strikes and has pledged NZ$100 million (€60 million/$68 million) to cut greenhouse gases.
Image: Getty Images/H. Hopkins
Truth to power
The movement has snowballed since 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg began skipping school to protest in front of parliament last August. On March 15, her protest spread from Vanuatu to Hong Kong (pictured here), Tashkent to Madagascar. In Thailand, one of the world's top plastic polluters, students campaigned against single-use plastics.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/A. Wallace
Seoul to Singapore
From Seoul to Singapore, each city's students spoke out in their own way. Here in South Korea, 100 students held signs saying "Too warm 4 school" and "Don't deny climate change." In Singapore, strict laws regulate public assembly so young people planned a virtual campaign on social media.
Image: Getty Images/Chung Sung-Jun
'To educate adults'
In India, protests were seen in 36 different cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Students in New Delhi chanted slogans demanding the Indian government stop using coal and act against climate change and air pollution.
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Berlin takes matters into its own hands
While German Chancellor Angela Merkel has supported the movement, some German students are still afraid to skip school. But not all. Protests were planned for 200 cities across the country. In the German capital, the crowds were huge by midday.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/T. Schwarz
Braving the storm
In the western German city of Cologne, students braved the wet weather. Massive storms have recently battered that part of the country, though they only appeared to fan the flames of the students' protest.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Kaiser
Swedish inspiration
Greta Thunberg (center) led one of the many protests in Sweden. She said she was excited that protests had spread to 2,052 places in 123 countries. Asked if adults should strike too, she replied: "It's up to them, if they want their kids to have a future."
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Zumapress/M. Thor
'Denial is not a policy'
Students in South African cities, including Cape Town and Pretoria, joined in the school strike. Africa, with more than 1 billion people, is expected to be hardest hit by global warming even though it contributes the least to greenhouse gas emissions.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/N. Manie
Strike across the US
Strikes were held by students in cities across the country, including New York, Washington, Chicago, Portland, Oregon and St. Paul, Minnesota. In June 2017, US President Donald Trump announced that the US was withdrawing from the 2015 Paris agreement on mitigating climate change.
Montreal drew among the largest crowds, estimated by organizers at nearly 150,000. The global movement saw a response from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said he was inspired by the climate strikers to call a special summit in September to deal with "the climate emergency."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Remiorz
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A greenhouse is made of glass that traps the sun's heat but doesn’t let it back out again, so that inside, it gets hotter. The same thing happens with the Earth's atmosphere, which holds in the heat from the sun to keep us all nice and warm (out in space, we'd quickly freeze!).
But gases that come from factories, power plants and cars and get into the atmosphere are making the planet too hot.
Most of the energy we use to make things, keep the lights on and our homes warm, turn on the air-con and power transport, comes from burning fuels like oil, gas and coal. These are called fossil fuels and when they are burned, they release carbon. Once carbon gets into the atmosphere, it traps a lot of heat.
Cutting down trees can also make the world hotter, because trees take carbon out of the atmosphere and store it safely away.
When the planet gets hotter, how the weather changes is different from place to place — and hard to predict. You may have heard older people talk about how winters used to be snowy, or seen pictures of melting glaciers. In some places, deserts are getting bigger and in summer it can be too hot to go outside.
But in other parts of the world it can actually get colder, rainier or more stormy: For example, when the glaciers melt, all that icy water goes into the sea, making it colder, changing the flows of water and air — and the weather. And when it gets hot, more water evaporates, making more rain.
Explained: Threats to marine life
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3. Is the world going to end?
No — planet Earth is about 4.5 billion years old and it has been through lots of changes, getting hotter and colder at different times. But the animals and plants that live here now like the climate just the way it is. If it changes too much, many will die.
Climate change could mean more people will become sick. And some people have to leave their homes and look for a safer place to live, sometimes far away in another country.
To stop the world getting too hot, we have to change the way we live. People are comfortable living their lives a certain way, getting around in gas-powered cars and airplanes and finding everything they want in stores, and they may fear giving up that way of life.
4. But what does that have to with me?
Pollution can come from many things; nearly everything we do in our daily life has an effect on the climate. That's why we're trying to fly less, reuse our shopping bags and buy fewer things, or get our food from the farms closer to home.
Think about plastic water bottles. Before they show up in the store, somebody has to make the bottle, fill it with water and move it to the store by truck. And then, once we're done with it, we usually just get rid of it right away — by recycling, when we can, or just tossing it in the trash. All that has an effect on the planet, by creating more pollution in the air, using up fresh water and making more garbage.
How to stop climate change? Start now!
We hear warnings about climate change on a daily basis. While global leaders dally over policy, what individual actions can we take to reduce global warming? A new study has some very concrete suggestions.
Image: Fotolia/TrudiDesign
Number 10: Upgrade lightbulbs
You just bought a fancy lamp? Make it cooler with efficient lightbulbs. This is one of the small actions that make a difference in the long-term - and let's be honest, it's not a big effort. Some LED bulbs consume up to 90 percent less than traditional ones.
Image: DW/Gero Rueter
Number 9: Hang laundry to dry
In cold or rainy countries, the task might be challenging - but these challenges are nothing compared to the worst consequences of climate change.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/Hussein Malla
Number 8: Recycling
Recycling has become normal behavior for thousands of people around the world. It definitely contributes to making a better world - but unfortunately, it is not enough.
Image: Fotolia/TrudiDesign
Number 7: Wash clothes on cold
Worried about your clothes shrinking in hot water? Here another reason to keep washing with cold water: Since it avoids turning on the water heater, cold-water washing also produces less greenhouse gas emissions.
Image: Fotolia/Kzenon
Number 6: Drive a hybrid
Until you are ready to get rid of your car completely, you could move to a hybrid electric car. But beware: The electricity that powers it is probably still coming from dirty fossil fuels.
Image: picture-alliance/Photoagency Interpress
Number 5: Switch to a vegetarian diet
Beef production is the largest driver of tropical deforestation worldwide, with soy production closely following - mainly to feed animals. The carbon footprint of a meat-based diet is almost double that of a vegetarian one. Even reducing the amount of meat you eat makes a difference.
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Number 4: Buy green energy
Renewable energies are the new trend - but we are still largely dependent on fossil fuels such as coal. In countries like Germany, you can choose your energy provider - among some that draw from renewable sources.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/L. Jin
Number 3: Cancel one trans-Atlantic flight
Air travel is a major challenge when it comes to tackling climate change. Policy-makers are exploring ways to reduce the climate impact of flights - but in the meantime, you can start thinking twice before taking a plane. Particularly to cross the pond.
Image: picture-alliance/P. Mayall
Number 2: Don't use a car
Getting rid of your car is the second-most effective action you can take to tackle climate change. And riding your bike also helps keep you fit!
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Number 1: Have one less child
Giving birth to a new person consuming and polluting at the current rate of people in industrialized countries is the worst thing you can do for the planet, according to the study. But if you start now with the other nine actions, your kids might be able to live in a better world.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/W. Grubitzsch
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5. So what can I do to help?
We can make small contributions, like remembering to turn off the lights when we leave a room, eating less meat and composting our garbage. We can also walk places or go by bike, or go on vacations closer to home so we can take the train, which uses less energy and makes less pollution than a plane.
Everyone can make changes in their daily lives that mean there will be less pollution. And while our choices alone aren't enough to fix the problem, they can help to convince companies and politicians to make bigger changes.
