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Millions of protestors from more than 150 countries around the world have taken to the street to participate in the Global Climate Strike – receiving coverage from a plethora of major news outlets.
In New York, 1.1 million public school students have been permitted to skip school to protest – with celebrity Willow Smith and teen activist Greta Thunberg attending the march.
While more than 100,000 activists rallied in Melbourne, Australia shutting down ‘key public transport corridors for hours’ in what has been described as ‘the largest climate action in the country’s history’.
Protestors have also blockaded the entrance to a Shell oil refinery in the Philippines, and an estimated 100,000 have gathered around the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
Environmental organizations Extinction Rebellion and Animal Rebellion, who urged the UK government to declare an environment and climate emergency, have left the office to take to the streets.
While beauty brand LUSH closed its stores to allow its employees to protest, stating: “Our tills will switch off, our shops and offices will shut, our website will go onto a low energy holding page and our factories will come to a standstill. We hear our children and we stand with them.”
‘There will be no future’
Co-Founder of Plant Based News, Robbie Lockie, who attended the strike in London, said: “The climate strikes are a battle cry from the youth of the 21st Century. They are demanding system-wide change. We can not continue living in a world that places profit above people and the planet.
“This Earth is finite along with every natural resource. If we do not shift towards a sustainable plant-based economy and place a limit on ‘infinite growth and profit’ there will bee no future. Change must happen NOW!”
‘We have not failed yet’
The Global Climate Strike has been spearheaded by 16-year-old environmentalist Greta Thunberg – who went viral for sitting in front of the Swedish parliament every school day for three weeks to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis.
Thunberg delivered a speech at the Goldene Kamera, an annual film and television awards in Berlin, earlier this year – stating: “We live in a strange world, but it’s the world that my generation has been handed, it’s the only world we’ve got. We’re now standing at a crossroads in history.
“We’re failing but we have not yet failed. There is still time to fix this, it’s up to us. Thank you.”
