Youth Climate Strikes Are Back

• Youth strikers from MAPA countries (Most Affected People and Areas) are back
• Mitzi Jonelle Tan (Philippines), Eyal Weintraub (Argentina), Disha A Ravi (India), Kevin Mtai (Kenya), Laura Veronica Muñoz (Colombia), were joined by Greta Thunberg from Sweden to announce a new wave of global climate strikes.

Young climate change activist, Greta Thunberg speaking at the Climate Action Summit at the United Nations in New York 2019. Credit: Getty Images

On September 25th 2020, thousands of climate strikes will take place across the globe to demand urgent action to tackle the climate crisis. Actions will be in the streets where COVID-19 regulations allow, as well as online. Street protests will follow local COVID-19 and social distancing guidelines.

As extreme weather events, fires and floods driven by the climate crises accelerate across the world, the strikes are a reminder to those in power that the climate crisis has not gone away.

Last year, millions of people took to the streets to demand climate action. Politicians and the media congratulated the youth and portrayed them as beacons of hope. However, with those same leaders’ inaction, there was never a cause for celebration. For the youth in the areas most affected by the climate crisis, 2019 was not a year for festivities: it was a struggle. Millions of people had to abandon their homes and it was one of the hottest years on record. With the global pandemic proving that our system cannot handle a serious crisis, now is the perfect opportunity to have a just recovery and build a better normal.

Kevin Mtai – Eldoret, Kenya

“The climate crisis is already having a huge impact on communities like mine in Africa. Unprecedented heavy rains and record floods across West, Central, and East Africa have affected millions of people in recent weeks, with more than 200 people dead and hundreds of thousands left homeless. In the US there are devastating wildfires, climate breakdown is not something that is going to happen in the future, it is here and now.”  – Kevin Mtai, Kenya

Author: Bryan Groenendaal