Young people rally at climate protests around the world

Tokata Iron Eyes.

Part of the series of chants that filled New York City streets today were calls to give Indigenous land back and to stop the Line 3 pipeline, which has garnered much opposition in recent weeks with the project nearing completion. 

Non-Indigenous youth climate activists say they are amplifying Indigenous voices that have been calling on the White House to make a last-ditch effort to halt the pipeline from crossing tribal lands and to avoid the potential risks of spills.

Many of the protests against the pipeline have been centered in Minnesota, where it passes bodies of water including the mouth of the Mississippi River. If the pipeline becomes fully operational, Line 3 will carry about 760,000 barrels of Canadian oil each day from North Dakota to Wisconsin. 

Tokata Iron Eyes, 18, who marched at the strike in New York, said she’s representing young Indigenous peoples and ancestors who couldn’t show up and fight for the planet today. Iron Eyes said she is calling on US leaders to put an end to fossil fuel subsidies, halt the Line 3 pipeline, and redact the permits for the Dakota Access pipeline in South Dakota. 

Some context: Despite sweeping climate pledges, including a recent one on limiting methane — a major component of natural gas — the Biden administration has defended a key decision that was made in the last days of the Trump administration to issue those permits.

But it could still withdraw the federal permits that are allowing the pipeline to move forward, and that’s what youth climate activists were calling for in their speeches today. 

Iron Eyes said the tides are changing with the youth climate movement in that it is becoming more diverse and spotlighting more Indigenous issues. 

“Being there and representing so much more than just one person and understanding that presence in itself opens so many doors,” she said. “The visibility was important for me.”

Jerome Foster II.

Youth climate activists marched in New York City today to call for climate justice and to put an end to the burning of fossil fuels. 

As strikers made their way down to Lower Manhattan’s financial district, stopping New York City traffic, the bustling streets filled with chants like “sea levels are rising, so are we,” “Keep that carbon in the soil,” and “There’s nothing natural about natural gas.”

The path followed the same route as 2019’s larger climate strike when Greta Thunberg made an appearance. Among the faces in the march toward Battery Park, where the crowd heard from speakers and musicians, were prominent youth activists such as Alexandria Villaseñor, Jerome Foster II, and Jamie Margolin. 

Alexandria Villaseñor, right.

Villanseñor told CNN her goals have evolved since she started striking at 13. She has been striking every Friday in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York since December 2018 until the pandemic lockdowns began.

Foster, currently the youngest member serving on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, told CNN he was wearing red to represent the findings of the landmark UN state-of-the-science report on climate change, which has been called a “code red for humanity.”

Jamie Margolin.

Margolin, co-founder of the climate organization Zero Hour who joined the movement in 2016, was also wearing red to represent a world on fire. She grew up in the Pacific Northwest, which this summer experienced a record-shattering heat wave that scientists say would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change. 

“It’s been such a long journey, and it’s really overwhelming in a good way to see such joy ands resilience right now because it’s been such a dark time for so long,” she told CNN. “Online activism is just not the same, especially with so much climate disasters happening.”

The theme for today’s Global Climate Strike is “Uproot The System” which is meant to spotlight the most climate-vulnerable communities. 

Organizers say uprooting the system means addressing the historical legacies of injustice that exacerbate the most severe impacts of the climate crisis. 

Against the backdrop of the UN General Assembly, climate activists are calling on developed nations to not only rapidly slash greenhouse gas emissions, but to also push for climate financing toward helping developing countries from being left behind. 

Wealthier nations are the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the planet, yet vulnerable communities such as small island nations and Indigenous peoples feel most of its consequences. These countries also disproportionately suffer the most severe impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“We cannot allow the world to continue to ignore the social impacts of the climate crisis, because all social inequalities are exacerbated when climate and environmental conditions impact local communities,” activists say.

Climate activists in Istanbul staged a “die in” outside the city’s Gazhane Museum.

The protests are part of thousands of rallies scheduled around the world alongside the United Nations General Assembly and as part of Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future climate movement.

Today’s rallies mark the first climate strike in Turkey since Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced at the UN on Tuesday that Turkey will bring the Paris Agreement to parliament for approval next month ahead of COP26.

Here’s what it looked like outside of the museum:

Emine Ozkan, Co-spokesperson of Turkey’s Green Party attends climate protests in Istanbul, on Friday, September 24.

Emine Ozkan, co-spokesperson of Turkey’s Green Party, welcomed President Tayyip Erdogan’s announcement this week that Turkey will bring the Paris Agreement to parliament for approval next month ahead of COP26.

“Until Tuesday, Turkey was one of the six countries that did not ratify Paris Climate Agreement together with Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Yemen,” Ozkan said. “We, the Greens, and the climate movement in Turkey have been fighting for years for this outcome. Our struggle and the interest in climate politics, especially the Paris Climate Agreement in the international arena, did not allow Turkey to resist any longer.”

“We need to see that ratifying the Paris climate agreement is the beginning, not the end. Turkey has a lot of work ahead of it. First of all, greenhouse gas emission reduction targets should be updated realistically in line with the 1.5 degree target. After this update, strategic plans should be made on how the reduction will take place in all policy areas, and Turkey should set a target year in order to be carbon neutral,” she continued.

“As the opposition parties, we must closely monitor and audit all processes and put pressure on taking bold steps. Because we have no time to lose! Our house is on fire,” Ozkan added.

Members of Climate Action Network (CAN) have reacted to the 76th UN General Assembly that took place in New York this week. Over the week, world leaders addressed the climate crisis and announced their agendas for the upcoming year, but CAN members argue they are not doing enough.

With weeks to go until the Cop26 climate summit, members of the group, including 1,500 NGOs in more than 130 countries, are calling on world leaders to work together to tackle the climate crisis.

Following Friday’s youth climate strikes, Mitzi Jonelle Tan, a Fridays for Future activist from the Philippines, highlighted a key message from their #UprootTheSystem campaign, telling rich countries they have a “climate debt to humanity.”

Biden has pledged $100 billion towards climate funding before COP26, however Cansin Leylim, associate director of global campaigns at 350.org, said that it is not enough. 

“To ensure that the global temperature stays below 1.5°C degrees, trillions of dollars are required. The USA should pay its fair share,” said Leylim.

Turkish Climate activist Yaren Ozcan

Young people in Istanbul want more to be done to tackle climate change.

“We faced the striking results of climate crisis in Turkey and all over the world recently,” university student Yaren Ozcan told CNN. The country suffered some of the worst wildfires in its history this summer followed by heavy flash floods across Turkish Black Sea provinces, that killed dozens of people in the north.

“We are the last generation to change this wrong path,” the 21-year old said. “This is an international day. We got together in Istanbul but there are strikes in other cities in Turkey. We are here to make our voices heard and for climate emergency awareness,” she added.

“It is a hopeful development that Turkey announced it will ratify Paris,” Ozcan said referencing Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan’s announcement at the UN Tuesday that Turkey will bring the Paris Agreement to parliament for approval next month ahead of COP26.

“We were surprised to hear while getting ready for today. We are happy, and will keep following its application close,” she added.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks to demonstrators taking part in Fridays for Future's global climate strike in Berlin, Germany.

Founder of the Fridays for Future movement, Greta Thunberg, is addressing crowds of protesters in Berlin – two days before Germany goes to the polls.

The country has the highest number of youth protests planned for Friday, with more than 400 scheduled to take place.

“Yes, we must vote, you must vote, but remember that voting only will not be enough. We must keep going into the streets,” Thunberg said that in direct reference to Sunday’s election.

“(It’s not an overstatement to say) They simply don’t give a damn about us,” she said talking about German politicians and political parties.

“We need to become all climate activists and we need to uproot the system,” Thunberg added.

Watch:

Protesters in Istanbul join the global Fridays for Future protests.

Climate activists in Istanbul are holding a vegan picnic to start their protests against the climate crisis. Images from the picnic show youth activists sitting on blankets, eating food and holding signs calling for action.

It is the first climate strike since the Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan announced at the UN on Tuesday that Turkey will bring the Paris Agreement to parliament for approval next month ahead of COP26.

Climate activists in Istanbul start protests with a vegan picnic.

Turkey signed the Paris agreement in 2016 but was one of the six countries that did not ratify it, along with Eritrea, İran, Iraq, Libya, Yemen.

This is a big step forward, but many activists are still calling for further action.

Turkey is vulnerable to climate change, and this summer saw some of the worst wildfires in the country’s history. Soon after, heavy flash floods swept across Turkish Black Sea provinces, killing dozens of people in the north.

A file photo of Slater Jewell-Kemker as she attends the Global Green 2019 Pre-Oscar Gala at in Los Angeles, California on February 20, 2019.

Canadian youth climate activist and filmmaker Slater Jewell-Kemker premiered her feature documentary “Youth Unstoppable” on Thursday night, ahead of Friday’s global protests.

Jewell-Kemker began chronicling the stories of young climate activists around the world at 15 years old. After years of filming and meeting young people from Nepal to Paris and Japan, her documentary shows the authenticity of the evolution of the youth climate movement.

Like many climate activists today, her journey into activism began after she watched the climate documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” at a young age and grew frustrated with the lack of action.

“I wasn’t sure how I could be involved. I wasn’t necessarily going to be the kid who went out and chained herself to a reactor refinery,” she said. “But I had a camera and I knew how to talk to people and ask them questions. And so for me, it felt like that was how I could be a part of the movement, how I could be an activist. And it just kind of grew from there.”

Jewell-Kemker said she joined the climate protests in Paris in 2015 and was injured when police fired tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons on the Champs-Elysées. “I felt so overwhelmed, I felt so terrified by this story of how we’re in this really horrific point in time, and it doesn’t seem like most people are doing anything about it,” she said.

After Thursday’s global premiere of “Youth Unstoppable,” Jewell-Kemker told CNN she felt relieved, after the many years that went into making it.

“Young people need to be reminded that they are part of something bigger than ourselves and that we do have the power to change things,” she said.

Her documentary is currently being shown for free on WaterBear, a streaming platform focused on climate change, biodiversity and nature. It will also be screened at the upcoming COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, this November.

At the United Nations General Assembly meeting of world leaders on Tuesday, Secretary General António Guterres sounded the alarm on climate crisis, saying that the world is “moving in the wrong direction.”

The window to keep the Paris Climate agreement’s goals alive is “rapidly closing,” he warned.

“Climate scientists tell us it is not too late to keep alive the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Climate Agreement. But the window is rapidly closing. We need a 45% cut in emissions by 2030. Yet a recent UN report made clear that with present national climate commitments, emissions will go up by 16% by 2030.”

Looking ahead at the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, Guterres said the world is “seemingly light years away from reaching our targets.”

Highlighting that the OECD reported a gap of at least $20 billion in essential and promised climate finance to developing countries, he outlined his recommendations and called on multiple stakeholders to escalate the momentum in global action against climate change, especially in the areas of mitigation, finance and adaptation.

In his message to every member states, he said, “don’t wait for others to make the first move. Do your part.”

Countries have the “opportunity and the obligation to act,” he said, as he made green policy recommendations.

“Governments must also summon the full force of their fiscal policymaking powers to make the shift to green economies. By taxing carbon and pollution instead of people’s income to more easily make the switch to sustainable green jobs. By ending subsidies to fossil fuels and freeing up resources to invest back into health care, education, renewable energy, sustainable food systems, and social protections for their people. By committing to no new coal plants,” he said.

The Paris targets “will go up in smoke” if all planned coal power plants become operational, he warned.

Protesters in Barishal, Bangladesh join the global climate protests on September 24.

Youth protesters in Bangladesh took part in Fridays for Future’s global strike, calling on its government to scrap planned new coal and gas projects. Images from the protests show activists holding banners demanding system change and climate justice.

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the climate crisis and activists are calling for a Green New Deal, like the European Union’s, with a move away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy. 

Carbon emission output from Bangladesh remains low, but the country is burdened by the climate crisis. The Environmental Justice Foundation estimates that one in seven people in Bangladesh could be displaced by climate change by 2050.

Protesters there are demanding that planned new coal and gas power stations are scrapped, with particular pressure for the cancellation of the Matarbari Ultra Super Critical Coal-Fired Power Project, in the Moheshkhali area.

The power project is seeking to generate 2400 MW of electricity, but protesters are concerned about its potential impacts on the environment and on the livelihoods of local residents.

Climate activists from MAPA (Most Affected People and Areas) countries, which includes Bangladesh, are calling for “colonizers of the north” to pay their climate debt to compensate poorer nations for the damage caused from the climate crisis.

Protesters gathered outside the Reichstag, which houses the lower chamber of Germany’s parliament, in central Berlin complained that young people were being squeezed out of politics ahead of the weekend election.

Others who were old enough to vote said their voices were being drowned out by the country’s aging population.

Amadeus Truman

Amadeus Truman, a 27-year-old German literature student living in Berlin, has worked with Fridays for Future for more than two years, describing climate action and justice as his passion.

“The parties fighting now for the German parliament on Sunday have let us down. They are so many parties who are telling us they want to cut emissions and it’s on their top agenda, but they don’t have the measures in place, and have not told us how they are going about doing this,” he told CNN.

“I think young people in Germany are highly underrepresented in politics, in the party and voting system – there are so many elderly people that vote and our voices all young people under 40 do not count as much as for those who are, for example, 60 years and older because we have so many elderly people.”

Wolfgang Wolman

Wolfgang Wolman, a 27-year-old film editor from Berlin, said he didn’t hold much hope the country’s next government would bring about the climate action needed.

“I blame the older generation for messing things up for us – not personally but in the total of society. They did not take a chance to do anything for us,” he said.

“Politicians had the chance to do something about climate change but they have failed us.”

Katharina Hetzel

Katharina Hetzel, a 22-year-old interning with Greenpeace and studying social sciences, said that politicians were “doing nothing or way too little.”

“So that’s why we have to be here. We want a good life – we want to protect our lives and that of our children and future generations to come. And of course, we have to protect Mother Earth,” she said.

“Politicians have not seen climate change as a big problem of our times and they thought it wouldn’t get worse. They simply did not think about us. They thought about their own lives and wellbeing. I really do feel they have forgotten us. I do think that our entire young generations thinks the same – that’s why we are here.”

She said that she wanted to see more young people in politics, including in parliament.

“If we look at the government there are a lot more older people than younger people and I believe the average age for members of parliament in the Bundestag is over 40 years old, so all the young people, their voices, their thoughts are not being respected or heard.”

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, center, joins a Fridays for Future global climate strike in Berlin, Germany on Friday, September 24.

Fridays for Future (FFF) is a youth-driven global climate strike movement that started in August 2018, when then 15-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg skipped school and staged sit-ins on Fridays outside the Swedish Parliament.

In the three weeks leading up to the Swedish election, she sat outside the Parliament every school day, demanding urgent action on the climate crisis.

Thunberg leads a school strike and sits outside of Riksdagen, the Swedish parliament building, in order to raise awareness for climate change on August 28, 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Soon, others joined and the group decided to continue their strike until Swedish authorities implemented policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They wanted climate efforts to be in line with goals under the 2015 Paris Agreement to contain global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, but preferably 1.5 degrees, above preindustrial levels. Very few countries are in line with that goal right now.

The strikers created the hashtag #FridaysForFuture and encouraged other young people all over the world to join them. They sometimes coordinate their protests, like those today, expected in more than 1,400 locations around the world.

Gazing out from the rocky ledge of Sleeping Beauty’s castle in central Germany, the countryside below stretches out in a patchwork of light and dark green forests before stopping dead.

At the heart of this lush landscape sits a swath of dry, bare earth. The ground is empty, save for a few ghostly white trunks pointing skywards.

Bark beetle infestations worsened by drought conditions and warmer weather brought by climate change has weakened the trees at the Reinhardswald nature park, the scene of childhood favorite fairy takes, like Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hoo

Characters perform "Little Red Riding Hood" at the monestery garden.

“Once the bark has peeled off, the trees look a bit like bones,” said Peter Meyer, head of forest nature conservation at the North-West German Forest Research Institute in Göttingen and Hann Münden.

“Then the beetle can just drill into the tree, lay eggs underneath the bark, and the larvae feed on the tree, interrupting the water supply, and that makes the tree die,” Meyer explains.

Germany has suffered historic drought in recent years and 2018 was the warmest since records began 140 years ago. In other parts of the country this summer, rain has fallen hard and fast, triggering deadly floods.

All of these events have put the climate crisis squarely on the campaign trail ahead of Germany’s federal election on Sunday. It’s the first in 16 years that won’t feature Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the candidates vying to replace her are all pitching their climate credentials.

Read the full story here:

Germany, Reinhardswald, area that was completely destroyed by the bark beetle

Related article Sleeping Beauty's forest is dying. It's not the only climate crisis facing Germany's next chancellor

Turkish students will join Fridays for Future’s global strike in Istanbul at 2 p.m. local time.

It is the first strike after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday that his country would bring the Paris Agreement to parliament to be ratified in one month.

Turkey is one among just a handful of more than 190 nations that signed up to the Paris Agreement in 2015 but has not yet ratified it with legislation. It’s the only G20 nation yet to do so.

Protesters from Insulate Britain block the A20 which provides access to the Port of Dover, in Kent, England on Friday, September 24.

Police have arrested 17 people in connection with protests at the UK’s busiest ferry port of Dover.

Police in the county of Kent said they were dealing with protest activity that began at around 8:20 a.m. local time and had been going for around three hours.

The group has been calling on the UK government to insulate homes across the country to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Protesters from Insulate Britain block the A20 which provides access to the Port of Dover, in Kent, England on Friday, Sept. 24.

Climate protesters from a group called Insulate Britain have blocked the country’s busiest ferry port at Dover after being banned from causing disruption on the M25, a ring road that encircles Greater London.

More than 40 people are blocking the port in an attempt to pressure the UK government into insulating homes across the country to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The UK has a widespread problem with energy inefficiency in its homes, many of which date back hundreds of years and are hard to heat in winter and cool in summer.

Images show protestors blocking the A20 into the port.

“Disruption is the only way to keep insulation on the agenda,” Insulation Britain said on Twitter.

“It is the only way to draw attention to ill health & early death as a result of fuel poverty.”

The group, which is an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, has caused havoc on the M25 motorway five times over the last two weeks. The group’s members are now being threatened with imprisonment if they return to the M25 following a high court injunction banning climate protests there.

The Port of Dover’s management said protesters were blocking both the entrance and exit to the port, though it remains open.

Protesters have begun to gather at the Reichstag, which houses the lower chamber of Germany’s parliament, in central Berlin.

Germany has the highest number of youth protests planned for Friday, with more than 400 scheduled to take place in the country, and the movement’s founder, Greta Thunberg, is expected to speak in Berlin.

Youth protesters from over 1,400 locations are calling on the Global North to pay their “climate debt.” 

“Other socio-economic crises such as racism, sexism, ableism, class inequality, and more amplify the climate crisis and vice versa.”

The Global Climate Strike is taking place across all inhabited continents under the banner #UprootTheSystem.

The strike comes as world leaders make key decisions on climate at the UN General Assembly and just weeks before the Cop26 climate summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow.

They protest organizers are calling for “a future where people and planet are prioritized.”

“They are also asking leaders of the Global North to drastically cut their emissions, ensure equitable distribution of the Covid vaccine and to recognize how the climate crisis impacts human safety, particularly that of indigenous communities.”