Greta Thunberg’s Lone Strike Against Climate Change

On March 15, students from schools around the world are expected to skip school in an effort to demonstrate against climate change. Demonstration by school students against climate change began in Sweden, and the person responsible for initiating a movement against this issue was Greta Thunberg, a 16-year old Swedish student, whose weekly “school strike for climate” has won a global following.

Thunberg began taking action against the issue of climate change by skipping her Friday classes and biking to parliament, standing in front of Stockholm’s Parliament House with a “school strike for climate” sign. It has been about a year since Thunberg first began standing in front of the Parliament House. Thunberg told Reuters, “I tried to bring people along to join me, but no one was really interested, and so I had to do it by myself.”

Today, thousands of students around the world have since copied her and youth organizations are calling for an unprecedented strike on Friday in which students in more than 40 countries are expected to participate. In an interview with Reuters, Thunberg said, “I think this movement is very important. It not only makes people aware, and makes people talk about it more, but also to show the people in power that this is the most important thing there is.”

Thunberg has become the founder of an international youth movement. Since the summer, tens of thousands of students in nearly 300 towns and cities from Australia to Uganda to the U.S. to Japan have joined her #FridaysForFuture protest. In Belgium, at the end of January, more than 30,000 students walked out of classes. A worldwide strike is planned for March 15th, with events planned in more than 50 countries. “Before I started, I didn’t expect anything,” Thunberg says. “I could have never imagined this reaction. It’s crazy.”

Thunberg gave a TED talk on climate change and her message has gained a substantial following. In February, Thunberg joined protests in Belgium, where she won a European Union pledge to spend billions of euros to combat climate change.