Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg has taken part in her first demonstration on US soil after arriving by zero-carbon yacht. She joined hundreds of other teenagers protesting outside the United Nations.
Image: AFP/B.R. Smith
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Greta Thunberg joined hundreds of other teenagers on Friday to protest outside the United Nations headquarters against inadequate global action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The 16-year-old Swedish activist has inspired a global youth climate movement by organizing weekly school strikes in her home country to draw attention to what she calls "a war on nature." She has spurred teenagers and students around the world to gather every Friday under the rallying cry "Fridays for future," to call on adults to act now to save the planet.
"Stop denying the earth is dying," and "We vote next," chanted the several hundred demonstrators, who included a few children as young as six, outside the UN headquarters. Some youngsters were attending a climate protest for the first time. "I knew there would be celebrities like Greta here. I think it's a really good idea. You have to change something," 13-year-old New Yorker Gabriel Kunin told the AFP news agency.
Thunberg attended the protest briefly before heading into the UN, where she had an impromptu meeting with the president of the General Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador.
Urgent action needed
Thousands of young protesters worldwide have followed Thunberg's example and skipped school on Fridays to publicly voice their concern about global warming and put pressure on politicians to act on the recommendations of the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Despite a warning from the IPCC in October that greenhouse gas emissions will have to be drastically reduced over the next 12 years to stop the Earth warming to dangerous levels, carbon emissions hit a new high last year.
Scientists have shown that human output of such gases from burning fossil fuels since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution has already intensified extreme weather phenomena like heat waves and droughts.
Thunberg, who will attend a UN summit on zero emissions on September 23, refused to fly because of the carbon emissions caused by planes. To reach the United States, she embarked on a 15-day journey across the Atlantic on an emissions-free boat.
The boat's onboard electronics are powered by solar panels and underwater turbines. The teenage activist has said she does not yet know how she will return to Europe.
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.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo
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."
