Sunday, March 17, 2019

Act now or swim later

On Friday students around the world went on a Climate Strike. They skipped class to protest inaction on doing something about global warming and the environment. In an article on The Guardian there is a summary and then a whole lot of pictures. From that summary:

This student movement was inspired by Greta Thunberg, who started sitting outside the Swedish Parliament last August. Thunburg is now nominated for a Nobel Prize.

There were likely more than 1 million protesters taking part in more than 2,000 events in 125 countries on six continents. The biggest protest appears to be in Sydney with 30,000 protesters. Melbourne might be second with over 20,000. And in Melbourne students are calling the local member of Parliament and chanting into the phone, asking him to step up and do something. Australian Education Minister Dan Tehan complained that the student should protest after school or on weekends. And they should join the National Action Day Against Bullying. They shouldn’t be encouraged by green political activists. Student reaction: He’s clueless.

During the same day US diplomats watered down agreements to eliminate single use plastics.

The link above is to the first of fourteen pages of pictures and commentary of protests around the world. I looked at the pictures on all of those pages, though didn’t read all the commentary. A second link is to a page with some of the best signs. A selection:

I’d be in school if the earth was cool.

Sorry, I can’t clean my room, I have to save the planet.

I am missing science class for this.

A quote from Albert Einstein, “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”

The climate is more hopeless than my high school graduation.

Act now or swim later.

Love Too much CO2 is in the air.

I want a hot date, not a hot planet.

And from some of those fourteen pages:
Why the actual f*** are we studying for a future we won’t even have?

Choose between Green or Greed.

I learnt science unlike the clowns in Parliament.

It’s so bad even the introverts are here.

How many people does it take to change the globe?

I cannot fit all my concerns on one sign.

Climate action is like my homework: overdue.

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