About why students are striking for a safe climate on Friday 15 March 2019
Citizens of all ages who have been inspired by Greta Thunberg will join the global climate action manifestation on 15 March 2019. It currently looks as if there will be 1,325 school strikes held in 98 countries. More than 60 strikes in Australia, more than 200 in France.
A French university in central France has announced it will close down entirely this Friday in order to support the strikers – this comes at the order of the Vice-Chancellor, who believes it is his moral duty.
→ The Geelong School Strike starts at 9am at 17 Yarra Street and will proceed to City Hall at 10am.
→ Global Climate Strike Facebook event page
Teachers’ call for student engagement and education
“Schools and teachers must take the lead and clearly show what is needed to save the climate. Tell the truth to the students of all topics and allow school strikes to take place to avoid climate anxiety,” wrote Jonas Hugosson, Lena Strandberg and Åsa Sahlström from a Swedish #teachersforfuture group in the Swedish Teachers’ Union magazine.
“Principals should open the school gates wide open on Friday 15 March when the global strike for future is implemented. Teachers and students could make an in-depth study-project in the days leading up to the event and read the latest report from the United Nations panel on climate change, ‘Global warming of 1.5ºC’.
Official support from teachers’ unions
“Education International welcomes the energy and engagement shown by students across the globe in their fight for climate justice.”
~ Education International – a global union federation of teachers’ trade unions consisting of 401 member organisations in 172 countries and territories that represents over 30 million education workers
» Education International:
Teachers support students in their fight against climate change
“The Australian Education Union (AEU) supports the rights of students to speak out in protest about the challenges posed by climate change in Australia.”
~ The Australian Education Union that represents almost 190,000 educators
» Australian Education Union:
School students have the right to protest Morrison government inaction on climate change
Blessed by Church of England
» The Daily Mail – 23 February 2019:
Church of England backs climate change demonstrations by pupils as leading bishop says young people are giving a lead to the rest of the country
• The Church of England has backed the school walkouts over climate change
• The shift towards green activism was decided by the Church’s General Synod
• Thousands of young people walked out of lessons last week to protest the issue
“The Church of England, the country’s biggest sponsor of schools, has thrown its weight behind last week’s climate change demonstrations by pupils. Bishops said young people are giving a lead to the rest of the country and their protests are needed ‘to stir us up’. “
Over 12,000 scientists support the school strikers
See www.scientists4future.org– Are you a scientist? Join here
Milou, a 14-year-old Castlemaine student, has this message for you:
“We may still be in school but we know the mining and burning of fossil fuels are driving dangerous climate impacts, including natural disasters, droughts, bushfires, and heatwaves. We only have a decade to prevent the worst impacts of climate change yet our politicians are wasting time and putting our future in danger.
So, on 15 March 2019, we’re walking out of school to tell our politicians to take all of us seriously and treat climate change for what it is: a crisis and the biggest threat to our generation and generations to come.”
Milou is one of the students who helped kick off the schools strike movement in Australia.
If you stand with Milou and the thousands of other young people who are leading this movement, then you are invited to take the day off in solidarity and join them on Friday 15 March 2019:
In Victoria, there’s going to be a huge rally in Melbourne, along with events in Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong, Albury-Wodonga and Baw Baw.
Join the School Strike 4 climate in Melbourne
WHERE Old Treasury Building, 20 Spring Street, Melbourne
WHEN 12-2pm, Friday 15 March 2019
WHO This action is lead by school students, but EVERYONE is invited!
Working? Take the day off work in solidarity.
RSVP to the Facebook event here (If you’re not on Facebook, you can RSVP here)
| Sure thing! I’m coming! |
“As an ocean conservationist with two kids aged 11 & 7 who are my driving force, I have been showing them all of your talks and they are so fired up. Just wanted to say you are so inspiring and exactly what this world needs Greta. Thank you for saying what needs to be said.”
~ Gary Stokes
“I just read an article about how the young (my) generation changed the world completely in the late 1980s and brought down the Soviet Union and reunited Germany. At the beginning of these protests noone could ever imagine that they might have success, but finally they made it. I feel this strength again today on the Climate Movement and if we manage to keep up the pressure we will succeed again. I’m sure. JUST STAY STRONG”
~ Marcus Renner
Open letter to world leaders:
“Treat the climate crisis as a crisis”
“We, the young, are deeply concerned about our future. Humanity is currently causing the sixth mass extinction of species and the global climate system is at the brink of a catastrophic crisis. Its devastating impacts are already felt by millions of people around the globe. Yet we are far from reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Young people make up more than half of the global population. Our generation grew up with the climate crisis and we will have to deal with it for the rest of our lives. Despite that fact, most of us are not included in the local and global decision-making process. We are the voiceless future of humanity.
We will no longer accept this injustice. We demand justice for all past, current and future victims of the climate crisis, and so we are rising up. Thousands of us have taken to the streets in the past weeks all around the world. Now we will make our voices heard. On 15 March, we will protest on every continent.
We finally need to treat the climate crisis as a crisis. It is the biggest threat in human history and we will not accept the world’s decision-makers’ inaction that threatens our entire civilisation. We will not accept a life in fear and devastation. We have the right to live our dreams and hopes. Climate change is already happening. People did die, are dying and will die because of it, but we can and will stop this madness.
We, the young, have started to move. We are going to change the fate of humanity, whether you like it or not. United we will rise until we see climate justice. We demand the world’s decision-makers take responsibility and solve this crisis.
You have failed us in the past. If you continue failing us in the future, we, the young people, will make change happen by ourselves. The youth of this world has started to move and we will not rest again.
~ The global coordination group of the youth-led climate strike
The Guardian – 1 March 2019:
Youth climate strikers: ‘We are going to change the fate of humanity’
“They are choosing coal over my kids’ future”
Nick Aberle from Environment Victoria wrote:
“As a caring parent of two young girls, I am deeply worried by the cloud that hangs over the world they will inherit. Perhaps like many of you, my wife and I talked about whether it was right to bring children into a world facing the possibility of a devastating climate breakdown.
But there is always hope, and I know we still have an opportunity to meet the scale of this challenge head on. Yet the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government has been squandering that opportunity for over five years. They are choosing coal over my kids’ future.
Kids get this stuff. Perhaps even more than adults. Even young kids.
When my eldest daughter was five, she said when she grew up she would invent a machine to get all the plastic out of the ocean. When she was seven, she drew a picture of a machine that made electricity without making ‘bad smoke’. She asked me to send it to the Prime Minister, so I took a photo and tweeted it at Malcolm Turnbull (he didn’t reply).
Until I can look her in the eye and tell her the adults have got this under control, I totally understand why she is worried.
So she and tens of thousands of young people around the country who are also worried about what is happening to their world are coming together. They’re sending a message to our politicians who, despite being the adults in the room, still aren’t acting like it. I say, GOOD ON THOSE KIDS.
I’ve raised my daughters to fight for what’s right. So they plan to take the day off school on March 15, and when they go make their voices heard, I’ll be the proudest dad in the place. Because what is more important than fighting for a safe place to live your life?
I encourage you to support your kids, your nieces or nephews, your grandkids or any other young folk in your life to join the strike.
These young people are showing us what climate leadership looks like – let’s show them that we’ve heard their message and have their backs! RSVP to the Melbourne event here >>
See you there!”
~ Nick Aberle
and the team at Environment Victoria
Not a school kid any longer?
Join a #GreyPower group supporting the kids
#HashtagForFuture
Join and promote the many work groups that are cropping up under various hashtags:
#TeachersForFuture
#ParentsForFuture
#SingersForFuture
#ChoirsForFuture
#ScientistsForFuture
#PsychologistsForFuture
#WritersForFuture
#YogisForFuture
#DoctorsForFuture
#AcademicsForFuture
#BiologistsForFuture
And there are more …
Sing for the climate on 15 March
The initiative #ChoirsForFuture encourages everyone to be singing for the climate on Friday 15 March 2019.
All over the world people will be gathering under the hashtag #SingForClimateMar15 during a Global Climate Strike on 15 March 2019.
The Swedish #FridaysForFuture network has set a goal of creating gatherings in every single municipality in Sweden on the day – calling for climate legislation that are in accordance the Paris Agreement’s aspiration to keep average global temperature rise caused by our carbon emissions below 1.5°C degrees.
If you sing in a choir, talk with your choir leader whether the entire choir would like to join the campaign. Choir leaders may email Maria Peters for more information and inspiration.
Here is a #ChoirsForFuture sign-up form in Swedish language.
The Stockholm choirs will repeatedly be singing these four songs:
• Washington (Sure!)
• After the Goldrush (Patti Smith’s version of the Neil Young-classic)
• Earth Song (by Michael Jackson)
• People Gonna Rise Like the Water
You can listen to some of the songs on this Spotify list
10 reasons to climate strike on 15 March
“We’re striking from school on March 15 to call for all politicians to take urgent action to stop the climate crisis. Here’s why you should JOIN US….
1. The climate crisis is hurting people now
And the people in power aren’t doing nearly enough to stop it.
2. The Government is telling us not to strike
Haven’t politicians learnt that telling young people what to do always backfires?!
3. It’s an awesome learning opportunity
Our politicians clearly aren’t listening to the educated, so we have to take to the streets to make them. Why should we learn about history and then not be allowed to make history? Activism is learning.
4. It’s going to be massive
Students in dozens of countries are joining. Our families and communities are coming. Unions are backing us. Some businesses are even shutting for the day to be there.
5. A federal election is coming up
A federal election is coming in May. Australians are worried about climate change. This is our opportunity to show every politician that we’re gonna make sure climate change determines who governs Australia from now on.
6. Adani is pushing ahead with their mega coal mine & our politicians aren’t stopping them
Coal is the #1 cause of climate change yet our politicians aren’t stopping Adani opening up one of the largest untapped coal reserves on the planet. So we have to take to the streets to make them.
7. We can’t vote yet
We don’t get to choose who governs Australia so we’re striking to give our generation a voice instead.
8. People are listening to us, now we need them to act
Last year’s strikes captured Australia’s and the world’s attention. Now we need everyone who supports us to join us in taking action everywhere.
9. Because we get to make more cool signs like this
And who doesn’t love a creative craft sesh with friends?!
10. Because our future depends on it
We, our children and their children, will inherit the dangerous climate impacts that our politicians’ inaction is fuelling and we’re really not cool with that.
See you on March 15 to #ClimateStrike for Our Futures!”
With hope,
The School Strikers 4 Climate Action
…and here’s a message from the Australian Conservation Foundation:
History being made
This is one of those moments when you can feel history being made.
On Friday 15 March, thousands of kids across Australia (and around the world) will strike from school to demand our government take urgent action to stop climate damage.
They’re part of a global movement of young people speaking truth to power and showing what’s at stake if we keep digging up and burning fossil fuels.
And they’re asking all of us to join them.
This month alone over 50,000 students have striked in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. At the last Australian strike in November, 15,000 kids left school to gather in 30 locations across the country.
On Friday 15 March, the kids are asking all of us – kids, adults and everyone in between – to join them. Will you be there?
History will be made tomorrow. Be there and bring your friends!
- Australian Capital Territory: Canberra
- New South Wales: Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Bega, Albury, Armidale, Lismore, Byron Bay, Inverell, Grafton, Port Macquarie, Murwillumbah, Bowral, Coffs Harbour, Gosford, Gunnedah, Orange, Tamworth
- Northern Territory: Alice Springs
- Queensland: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Townsville, Cairns, Whitsundays, Bundaberg, Mossman, Mackay, Yeppoon
- South Australia: Adelaide
- Tasmania: Hobart, Launceston
- Victoria: Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Kyneton
- Western Australia: Perth, Denmark, Bunbury, Nannup
The media and public can’t get enough of the kids, who speak with such clarity and authenticity about what our government needs to be doing. They are truly changing the story about what courageous and visionary leadership looks like.
Our summer has been nothing short of brutal. Floods, fires, heatwaves, drought – climate damage is here now, and more and more people are joining the dots.
With a federal election approaching, this is our moment to turn out in the thousands and stand with kids across the country demanding an end to digging and burning coal.
Together we can make this movement unstoppable. Let’s show all the communities impacted now, and the generations to come, that we’re with them all the way.
See you there,
Phoebe Rountree
Assistant Climate Change and Clean Energy Campaigner
The Australian Conservation Foundation
» Hong Kong Free Press HKFP – 9 March 2019:
Climate strike: Hong Kong’s students are right, and – sorry ESF schools – personal cutlery is not an adequate answer
» Dig deeper into the UN climate report here: www.ipcc.ch/sr15
» Watch more videos about, with or inspired by Greta Thunberg
» Read more about the global climate-strike movement on www.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_strike_for_climate
» Follow the social media news streams on, for instance:
| #FridaysForFuture | #GlobalStrikeForFuture | #15march | #GreyPower | #ClimateStrike | #SchoolStrike4Climate | #Youth4Climate | #TheTimeHasCome | #TellTheTruth |