Students in more than 100 countriesurge action against climate change

Image 1. Hundreds of schoolchildren take part in a climate protest in Hong Kong, China, on March 15, 2019. Students in morethan 80 countries and territories worldwide skipped class that day to protest their governments' failure to act against globalwarming. The coordinated "school strike" was inspired by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, who began holding solitarydemonstrations outside the Swedish parliament last year. Photo by: AP Photo/Kin Cheung

BERLIN, Germany — From Asia to the edge of the Arctic Circle, studentsmobilized by word of mouth and social media skipped class to protest. They aretrying to raise awareness about what they see as the failure of their governmentsto take tough action against global warming.

The March 15 rallies were one of the biggest international climate change actionsyet. They involved hundreds of thousands of students in more than 100 countriesaround the globe.

The coordinated "school strikes" were inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activistGreta Thunberg, who began holding solitary demonstrations outside the Swedishparliament last year.

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Since then, the weekly protests havesnowballed from a handful of cities tohundreds, fueled by dramatic headlinesabout the effect of climate change duringthe students' lifetime. Scientists havebacked the protests, with thousands inGreat Britain, Finland, Germany and theU.S. signing petitions in support of thestudents.

Thunberg, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, said at a rally inStockholm, Sweden, the world faces "the biggest crisis humanity ever has facedand still it has been ignored for decades."

"And you know who you are, you that have ignored this," she said.

Protests Highlight Environmental Problems

Across the globe, protests big and small urged politicians to act against climatechange while also highlighting environmental problems.

In India's capital of New Delhi, schoolchildren protested inaction on climatechange. They demanded that authorities tackle rising air pollution levels in thecountry, which often far exceed World Health Organization limits.

In Paris, France, teenagers crowded the cobblestoned streets around the domedPantheon building. Some criticized French President Emmanuel Macron, whosees himself as the guarantor of the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord but iscriticized by activists for being too business-friendly and not ambitious enough inefforts to reduce emissions of pollutants.

It was high school student Raphael Devautour's first protest. He compared it topeace protests starting in the late 1960s. "We can feel that something ishappening," he said. "When the youths start acting, it get things moving."

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In South Africa's capital, Pretoria, oneprotester held a sign reading, "You'll MissThe Rains Down in Africa." It was areference to a famous 1981 song by theAmerican band Toto. Experts say Africa,with its population of more than 1 billionpeople, is expected to be hardest hit byglobal warming even though it contributesleast to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause it. Too many greenhouse gases,such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide and ozone, cause heat tostay trapped in Earth's atmosphere. Scientists believe this has directly caused thetemperature rise.

Protesters Gather By The Thousands

Thousands marched in Warsaw, Poland, and other Polish cities to demand a banon burning coal, a major source of carbon dioxide.

Speakers at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., stood behind a banner saying,"We don't want to die."

Protests in Madrid, Spain, and more than 50 other Spanish cities drew thousands.The country is vulnerable to rising sea levels and rapid desertification. This is theprocess by which fertile land that could once be used to grow crops turns todesert. The area loses its bodies of water, vegetation and wildlife.

In Berlin, Germany, police said as many as 20,000 protesters gathered in adowntown square. They waved signs such as "March now or swim later" beforemarching through the German capital to Chancellor Angela Merkel's office.

Carla Reemtsma, a 20-year-old student who helped organize the protest in Berlin,said she's part of about 50 WhatsApp groups devoted to discussing climatechange.

"A lot happens on social media because you can reach a lot of young people veryquickly," she said.

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Some Politicians Offer Support

Azalea Danes, a student at the Bronx High School of Science, wasn't a climateactivist until two weeks ago when she read about Thunberg's efforts. Now she isone of the top organizers of the youth climate strike in New York City, where sheorganized thousands to rally in three places on March 15.

That shows how these protests are organized from the bottom up, she said.

Volker Quaschning, a professor of engineering at Berlin's University of AppliedSciences, said it was easy for politicians to belittle students.

"That's why they need our support," he said. "If we do nothing, then parts of thisplanet could become uninhabitable by the end of the century."

However, some politicians praised the students. Denmark's Prime Minister LarsLoekke Rasmussen showed up at the protest in his country's capital ofCopenhagen and tweeted, "We must listen to the youth. Especially when they'reright: the climate must be one of our top priorities."

Scientists have warned for decades that current levels of greenhouse gasemissions are unsustainable, so far with little effect.

Global Temps Are On The Rise

In 2015, world leaders agreed in Paris to a goal to control the temperature rise.They said they must keep the Earth's temperature rise by the end of the centurywell below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times, before factories and businesses began burning fossil fuels on alarge scale.

Yet the world has already warmed by 1 degree Celsius since pre-industrial timesand is on track for an increase of 4 degrees Celsius, which experts say would havefar-reaching consequences for life on the planet.

In Germany, environmental groups and experts have criticized government plansto continue using coal and natural gas for decades to come.

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Quaschning, one of more than 23,000 German-speaking scientists to sign a letterof support this week, said Germany should stop using all fossil fuels by 2040. Thiswould give less-advanced nations a bit more time to wean themselves off coal, gasand oil while still meeting the Paris goal globally.

Quaschning said stopping Germany's use of all fossil fuels would take extremesteps. He added that, "there isn't the slightest sign of that happening yet."

In Stockholm, Thunberg predicted students won't let up their climate protests.

"We are on strike because we do want a future," Thunberg said.

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