Youth climate activists return to streets in global call for action

Berlin (dpa) – Protesters calling for action on global warming have returned to the streets in several countries in the first major event staged by the Fridays for Future youth climate movement since the coronavirus pandemic.

According to organizers, more than 3,000 “climate strikes” – inspired by the activism of Swedish school student Greta Thunberg – are due to be held worldwide.

About 400 demonstrations were planned across Germany alone, including in the capital Berlin, where mainly young activists descending on the landmark Brandenburg Gate for a vigil despite pouring rain.

“The government leaves us no choice but to take to the streets against their continuing lack of interest in a secure future for our generation,” Luisa Neubauer, the movement’s best-known activist in Germany, told dpa.

She said that that the protesters would respect the current risks posed by the coronavirus by maintaining distance from each other and wearing masks.

About 10,000 people have registered to attend a rally in Berlin, according to organizers.

Friday’s events were nonetheless expected to be a far cry from the unprecedented rallies and school strikes seen in September 2019, when hundreds of thousands of people protested across the globe.

Students in Australia kicked off the pandemic-era day of action with protests as far as the Northern Territory, where Twitter photos showed a group of demonstrators kneeling in the red desert, waving Aboriginal flags alongside banners calling for an end to fracking.

In Sydney, a group of protesters at Martin Place strung posters across the town square to represent the numbers that could not be there due to Covid-19 restrictions.

“The energy has been high, but it has been harder because of the limited amount of people we’re allowed here,” 16-year-old protester Natasha said.

In Stockholm, Thunberg joined other youngsters outside the Swedish parliament.

“School strike week 110,” tweeted the 17-year-old, who has been skipping school on Fridays to raise awareness of the climate crisis since August 2018.

About 80 protest events are planned for Sweden on Friday.

The young activists received support from researchers in the Arctic and Antarctic, who have also been calling on governments to step up the fight against climate change.

Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in northern Germany published photos from the German-French research station Awipev on Spitsbergen, an Arctic expedition ship “Polarstern” and from the Neumayer Station in the Antarctic under the Twitter hashtag #NoDegreesFurther.

“We deliver the facts. It’s time to act!” a banner held by the researchers said.

“The signs are increasing that the tipping points are being reached,” the Spitsbergen researchers wrote, adding that it was their responsibility to note the risks shown by their climate data.