- The Global Climate Strike: Students walked out of their classrooms in over 100 countries to protest climate inaction.
- Here's why: They say their governments have failed future generations by not cutting emissions and curbing global warming.
Students from Nelson College in Nelson, New Zealand, performed a Haka dance during a massive climate change protest.
“The students behind them are from Nelson College for Girls, Nayland College, Waimea College, Broadgreen Intermediate and more,” freelance journalist Naomi Arnold said.
And they're concerned about the inaction on this front.
If human-generated greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, the planet will reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels as soon as 2030. That threshold is critical.
Global warming at that temperature would put the planet at a greater risk of events like extreme drought, wildfires, floods and food shortages for hundreds of millions of people, according to the IPCC report.
"Today, the tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of kids who are striking around the world are doing it not because we want to skip school, but because we are scared," 12-year-old Haven Coleman, co-founder and co-director of the US Youth Climate Strike, said at a news conference in the country's capital.
Other strikes were planned in nearly all 50 states.
European capital cities have attracted huge crowds of strikers today, as shown in these pictures shared by the European Green Party:
In cities across India, school students joined climate strikes.
Vidit Baya, head of the Fridays for Future movement in India, tells CNN that India is already suffering from the impacts of climate change.
"In 2018, severe floods affected the coastal state of Kerala killing hundreds and injuring thousands. It is suspected that a 2 degrees Celsius rise in world’s temperature will make India’s monsoon ever more unpredictable," he says.
"Rising sea levels will impact agriculture and degrade groundwater quality," according to Baya.
Watch student protesters in India:
In Tel Aviv, hundreds of students have gathered to protest what they say is the Israeli government's failure to cut emissions and switch to renewable energy sources.
"We fear that drought and extreme weather conditions will destroy our economy because when temperature rises the need for water will increase and also the lack (of) water multiplies. Low income families will struggle to pay for water," Michael Bäcklund, one of the strike's main organizers, tells CNN.
Thousands of young people have gathered in Luxembourg City, singing, dancing and listening to speeches.
“To show we are gravely concerned about the world we will live our future lives in. To demand that treating the climate crisis as the crisis it is. Hoping that our strike will urge and pressure politicians or other people in power to take the urgent action needed to solve this climate crisis.
“Thirty years of ‘small individual acts’ and ‘everyone does their bit’ has not worked. Governments of the world have to wake up."
Mayors around the world have expressed their support for the student protests.
“It is heartening to see our young people taking a stand and reminding us that it is their generation who will be left to face the worst effects of climate change if we don't act quickly to cut carbon emissions,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement.
“It is truly inspiring to see young people demanding urgent climate action. It is our responsibility as adults and political leaders, to learn from you and deliver the future you want and the future you can trust in,” said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who joined the march in Paris.