The activist Greta Thunberg celebrated the global climate demonstrations as a “wave of change” in front of tens of thousands of people in New York. “We are not just a few young people who skip school or a few adults who have not gone to work – we are a wave of change. Together we are unstoppable,” said the 16-year-old on Friday afternoon (local time ) in Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan.
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“If you are one of the small group of people who feel threatened by us, then I have very bad news for you because this is just the beginning. There will be changes whether you like it or not.”
According to the organizers, around 250,000 people had come to the demonstration in New York, the city’s mayor’s office said around 60,000. That’s not a little for New York, but the metropolis has also seen significantly larger protest marches. The New York school administration announced a few days ago that all absences on that day were excused.
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Demos from Australia to Afghanistan
There were also demonstrations in other cities in the USA such as Washington, Boston and Portland. Before that, hundreds of thousands had taken to the streets in various cities around the world. The youth movement called Fridays for Future. Thunberg spoke of a “historic day”. “This is the biggest climate strike in history and we should all be so proud of ourselves because we did it together. (You can read a minute log of Climate Day here).
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Young people also took part in the global demonstrations against global warming in the Afghan capital of Kabul, which is shaken almost every day by terrorist attacks.
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Several dozen young people demonstrated with posters that read, among other things: “No longer deny that our planet is dying” and “Little hands can change the world”. The march was protected by soldiers with automatic fire rifles.
The people in Kabul not only suffer from the constant terrorist attacks with hundreds of dead and injured. The city is also plagued by smog, largely because of the many coal stoves. Poor people also heat with plastic waste. The dangerous fine dust exceeds the values set by the World Health Organization many times over.
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Social media are calling on the government to do more to tackle air pollution. “If we survive terrorist attacks, car bombs or ambush shots, this air pollution will kill us,” it said, among other things.
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