Global Climate Strike

When is #climatestrike?

On Friday September 20, at the request of the young people who’ve been staging powerful school strikes around the world, people everywhere will walk out of their workplaces to spend the day demanding emergency action to tackle the climate crisis.

But it’s not just about one day: September 20 will be the beginning of a week of climate actions all over the world through to September 27 and beyond. We hope it can be a turning point in history.

What is #climatestrike?

School climate strikers have been leaving their classrooms every Friday. Now they hope that grown-ups will join them — that people will leave their offices, their farms, their factories; that candidates will step off the campaign trail and football stars off the pitch; that movie actors will scrub off their makeup and teachers lay down their chalk; that cooks will close their restaurants and bring meals to protests; that pensioners too will break their daily routines and join in sending the one message our leaders must hear: Day by day, business as usual is destroying the chance for a healthy, safe future on our planet.

We hope some people will join protests: against new pipelines, or the banks that fund them; against the oil companies and the politicians that spread their lies. We hope others will spend time putting insulation in the walls of their neighbour’s homes, or building bike paths. We hope everyone will take at least a few moments in a city park or a farm field or on the roof of their apartment to simply soak in the beauty of the world it’s our privilege to protect.

Why #climatestrike?

Obviously this is a lot to ask: disrupting a day in the life of the world is a big deal, and all of us are used to our routines. But we’re not comfortable letting school children carry all the weight —they need our backing. And disrupting our normal lives seems key to changing the status quo —it’s business as usual that is deepening the climate crisis every day.

We are the people who happen to be alive at the moment when our choices will determine the future for tens of thousands of years: how high the seas will rise, how far the deserts will spread, how fast the forests will burn. Part of our work must be to protect the future.

September 20 will kick off a global week of actions and activities through to September 27 and beyond. Everyone has a role to play – whatever you can do.

What difference can #climatestrike make?

By itself, one climate strike won’t solve the crisis in a day. What it can do is demonstrate that people are no longer willing to continue with business as usual. Greta Thunberg’s lone protest caught the world’s attention last year, and has spread to millions of school children sounding the alarm. Now it’s our turn to stand with our children and show world leaders our people power. September 20 will kickstart a huge week of actions all over the world.

The good news is that we have the solutions we need—the price of a solar panel has plunged 90 percent in the last decade. And we know the policies needed to put solutions to work: all across the planet some version of a Green New Deal has been proposed, laws that would speedily and fairly replace fossil fuels with the power of sun, water and wind, along the way providing good jobs and stabilizing strong local economies.

Who is going on strike?

We hope all kinds of environmental, public health, social justice, and development groups will join in, but our greatest hope is simply to show that those working on this crisis have the backing of millions of human beings who have a growing dread about the climate emergency but who have so far stayed mostly on the sidelines. It will take all of our efforts to get those kinds of numbers in the streets, but we don’t have too long: our window for effective climate action is closing fast.

What if I can’t go on climate strike?

We know not everyone can join us—on a grossly unequal planet, some people literally can’t do without a single day’s pay, and some of us work for bosses who would fire us if we dared try.

And some jobs simply can’t stop: emergency room doctors should keep at their tasks. But many of us can put off for 24 hours our usual work, confident it will be there when we return.

The strike called by youth on September 20 will kick start a week of climate action with many different plans underway in different parts of the world allowing adults to join together, step up and take action for our climate.

Who is supporting climate strikes?

Climate strikes were started by school kids and students – many organizing through the #FridaysForFuture platform.

This mobilisation is a joint response by several NGOs and environmental groups, as well as unions and social movements across the world, to the call to action from young people. Together we will echo, amplify and respond to their call for everyone to join them: young people, parents, grandparents, workers and all concerned citizens.

A list of all of the organisations involved will be available soon. These are the principles guiding this collective effort.