Around the world the environmentally-conscious school strikes in support of climate change action have seen tens of thousands of young people walk-out of their lessons and take to the streets. The wave of protests are set to hit the U.K., with a series of walk-outs planned for Friday 15, February 2019. The a coordinated day of action, backed by the U.K. Youth Climate Coalition, is expected to lead to walkouts in over thirty towns and cities, ranging from Lancaster to Truro, and Ullapool to Leeds, as the indicated by the campaign’s Facebook page.
The movement for young people started in August 2018 when the 16-year-old schoolgirl Greta Thunberg held a solo protest outside Sweden’s parliament. This led to copycat action in many other countries, most of which are now organized through websites and social media. The U.K. walk-outs will be adopting successful models from around the world, such as Australia where the organization ‘School Strike 4 Climate’ has been coordinating the student action. The organization outlines its mission as: “We are striking from school to tell our politicians to take our futures seriously and treat climate change for what it is – a crisis.”
Interviewed by The Guardian, one school student from Scotland, Holly Gillibrand, says she has been operating her own Friday lunch-time protests for the past few weeks. She is set to take part in the wider walk-outs. Describing her actions in support of climate change she said: “It’s the first time I have done anything like this…But I feel very angry, very scared and I see that they [political leaders] are not taking climate change seriously. It is an urgent crisis that needs to be addressed.”
The U.K. walkouts are seen as a stepping-stone towards a global day of school strikes on 15 March, 2019.
