Over One Million to Take Part in Youth Climate Strike

UPDATED 1:17 PM EST

UPDATED 11:49 AM EST: Hundreds of Baltimore City School students walked out of class today because “The people in charge of our government are putting children in jeopardy.”

Over a million kids are expected to skip school on Friday to demand world leaders take on the climate crisis with the urgency it deserves.

Organizers say over 5,000 actions will take place in 157 countries, kicking off a week of youth-led climate action.

The Real News will be on the ground in New York and Baltimore, so stay tuned for updates throughout the day.

To show support, New York City and Boston school districts plan to excuse all absences for participants. Amnesty International has also backed the strike, and is urging schools nationwide to not discipline students who walk out of classes.

The strike comes months after 1.4 million students took part in a worldwide climate walkout in March, and organizers expect Friday’s numbers to surpass that. This time, youth organizers have explicitly encouraged adults to join the strike, too.

This Friday’s action falls on the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s devastating landfall in Puerto Rico, which killed thousands. It also comes just days before the major United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York.

New York’s action will feature young climate leaders such as plaintiffs in the Juliana vs United States case, members of youth-led environmental organizations Zero Hour and the Sunrise Movement, and 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Earlier this week, Thunberg appeared in front of Congress alongside other youth climate leaders to urge representative to heed scientists’ warnings and push forth climate policy.

“This is not the time and place for dreams, this is the time to wake up,” she said before the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday. “This is the moment in history we need to be wide awake,”

https://therealnews.com/stories/youth-climate-strike-brings-thousands-to-streets-of-london

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Jaisal is currently the Democracy Initiative Manager at the Solutions Journalism Network and is a former TRNN host, producer, and reporter. He mainly grew up in the Baltimore area and studied modern history at the University of Maryland, College Park. Before joining TRNN, he contributed print, radio, and TV reports to Free Speech Radio News, Democracy Now! and The Indypendent. Jaisal's mother has taught in the Baltimore City Public School system for the past 25 years. Follow him on Twitter @jaisalnoor.

Dharna Noor is a staff writer at Earther, Gizmodo's climate vertical.