– Greta Thunberg.
On Friday 20th of September, millions of people from all corners of the world took part in a worldwide Climate Strike. Sparked by the amazing Greta Thunberg, the people of the world took to the streets to protest their governments who are completely ignoring the effects of global warming, with some countries outright refusing to do anything at all. The effects of climate change are getting worse everyday and if we ignore it like we are doing now, it won’t be long until we don’t have a future to plan for.
That’s why I decided to take part in my local Climate Strike. We turned up at the place where everyone who was marching was going to end up. It wasn’t long until we could hear chanting and shouting and stomping in the distance. It was phenomenal. On the morning of the march, we had already seen pictures of around the world ahead of us where crowds were so big, they were stretching into the distance.
In London, it’s estimated that around 100,000 people marched to take part in the strike. In Brighton and Edinburgh, 10,000 and 20,000 people turned up in support, respectively. And that’s just in the UK! In America, certain places like New York are estimated to have millions of people who attended the march. I reckon our local protest in Bangor, North Wales, only had a couple of hundred people at the march, but it’s still rather impressive for rural Wales.
The event itself was incredible. We weren’t on the actual march but we were watching it pass us every now and again, seeing them weaving in and out of Bangor and could hear it thundering and echoing from several streets away. Soon, everyone started arriving. It didn’t take long before it became very crowded. People started piling in – most of them school kids taking part in the strike – waving banners and posters each with something important to say.
We also had a placard with us, which I had painted the night before. I really enjoyed painting it and it looked really good, even though my talents usually lie with digital art. It was an amazing opportunity to enhance my abilities with actual paint and brushes. While we were there, it got a really good response. We caught quite a few people snapping pictures of it and I saw quite a few people laugh in amusement at the giant comical, “STOP IT!” painted on it.
When the time came, people were asked by one of the organisers of the march to come forward and speak. A few adults were brave enough to face the crowds but the majority of people to speak were school kids. Ranging from 8-15 years old (give or take), they were all clearly furious about the fact that they had to miss their lessons to teach the world a very important one. There were quite a few too, around 15-20 kids stepped forward and braved a large crowd. It’s really impressive and it takes some guts.
All of the children’s speeches were very similar. The message was simple; we need to pull together and fix the mess we’ve made otherwise the earth we supposedly cherish so much, won’t be around for much longer. Global Warming has already had a devastating effect on the planet. Ice melting, forests burning, and around 200 species of plant, bug and mammal are going extinct every day. These problems aren’t going to just “go away”. Things need to change. Fast.
And hopefully, this united climate strike will start that change that we so desperately need.
Cerys