Right: The schoolgirl who started it all: Fifteen-year-old Greta Thunberg protested outside Sweden's parliament every day leading up to the September election, refusing to attend school.
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Background information
The information below has been abbreviated from the Wikipedia entries 'Climate movement' and 'Greta Thunberg'. The full text of each entry can be accessed here
and here The information regarding School Strike 4 Climate Change can be accessed on the movement's Internet site, here
The climate movement
The climate movement is the collective of nongovernmental organizations engaged in activism related to the issues of climate change. It is a subset of the broader environmental movement, but some regard it as a new social movement itself given its scope, strength and activities.
Activism related to climate change began in the 1990s, when major environmental organizations became involved in the discussions about climate, mainly in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) framework. In the 2000s several climate-specific organizations were founded, such as 350.org, Energy Action Coalition, and the Global Call for Climate Action.
The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen was the first UNFCCC summit in which the climate movement started showing its mobilization power on a large scale. Between 40,000 and 100,000 people attended a march in Copenhagen on December 12 calling for a global agreement on climate. And activism went beyond Copenhagen, with more than 5,400 rallies and demonstrations taking place around the world simultaneously.
The climate movement convened its largest single event in September 21, 2014, when it mobilized 400.000 activists in New York during the People's Climate March (plus several thousands more in other cities), to demand a climate action from the global leaders gathered for the 2014 UN Climate Summit
The 2014 People's Climate March
The climate movement convened its largest single event in September 21, 2014, when it mobilized 400.000 activists in New York during the People's Climate March (plus several thousands more in other cities), to demand a climate action from the global leaders gathered for the 2014 UN Climate Summit.
Student Involvement - Fossil Fuel Divestment
The Fossil Fuel Divestment movement calls for colleges and universities, as well as cities, states, religious institutions, and pension funds to withdraw their investments from fossil fuel companies. 350.org launched their Go Fossil Free campaign in 2012 with Bill McKibben's "Do The Math" speaking tour around the country. 350.org explains that the reasoning behind this campaign is simple: "If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage." The Fossil Fuel Divestment movement escalated tactics in the spring of 2015, with 19 students arrested at Yale University, a week-long blockade of Harvard University's administrative buildings, a 70-student sit-in at Tulane University, and other actions for which they could be arrested.
Greta Thunberg
On 20 August 2018, Greta Thunberg, then in ninth grade, decided to not attend school until the 2018 Swedish general election on 9 September after heat waves and wildfires in Sweden. Her demands were that the Swedish government reduce carbon emissions as per the Paris Agreement. She protested via sitting outside the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) every day during school hours with the sign "Skolstrejk f r klimatet" (school strike for the climate).
After the general elections, she continued to strike only on Fridays, which gained worldwide attention. Similar protests were organized in other countries, including The Netherlands, Germany, Finland and Denmark. In Australia, thousands of school students were inspired by Thunberg to strike on Fridays, ignoring Prime Minister Scott Morrison's comments of " more learning in schools and less activism".
On Twitter, she used hashtags and spread online awareness. Thunberg participated in the Rise for Climate demonstration outside the European Parliament in Brussels and the Declaration of Rebellion organized by Extinction Rebellion in London.
On 24 November 2018, she spoke at TEDxStockholm. Towards the conclusion of her talk, Thunberg said, 'We've had thirty years of pep-talking and selling positive ideas. And I'm sorry, but it doesn't work. Because if it would have, the emissions would have gone down by now-they haven't.'
On 4 December 2018, Thunberg addressed the COP24 United Nations climate change summit. On 12 December 2018, Thunberg again addressed the COP24 plenary assembly
School Strike 4 Climate Change - Australia
The School Strike 4 Climate Action protest began with three students in Castlemaine, inspired by 15-year-old Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, who started boycotting classes before parliamentary elections in her nation in September.
According to the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, the central Victorian students reached out to other schools across the country. Then they sought support from the AYCC in organising and getting their message out.
The Australian members of Strike 4 Climate Change describe themselves on their Internet page as '... children aged 5-18 from cities and towns across Australia. Most of us have never met before but are united by our concern about our planet. We are striking from school to tell our politicians to take our futures seriously and treat climate change for what it is - a crisis.
They can show us that they care by taking urgent action to move Australia beyond fossil fuel projects (e.g. #StopAdani's mega coal mine) and get the job done of moving us to 100% renewable energy for all.
The group's mission statement continues, 'Climate change is one of the biggest problems facing the world and it isn't being addressed quickly enough.
In Australia, education is viewed as immensely important, and a key way to make a difference in the world. But simply going to school isn't doing anything about climate change. And it doesn't seem that our politicians are doing anything, or at least not enough, about climate change either.
So, as our contribution to the changes we want to see, we are striking from school. We are temporarily sacrificing our education in order to save our futures from climate wrecking projects like the Adani coal mine. '