Students around the world rally to demand governments act on climate change

BERLIN, Germany — They organized by word of mouth and social media. Around the world, students skipped classes on Friday.

Students protested to draw attention to climate change. They believe governments have not taken enough action to protect the planet.

The March 15 rallies were one of the biggest worldwide climate change actions yet. They involved hundreds of thousands of students. Young people protested in more than 100 countries.

The coordinated "school strikes" were led by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. She began holding demonstrations by herself last year. She protested outside the Swedish government building.

Since then, the weekly protests have grown. They grew from a handful of cities to hundreds. Catchy slogans about the effect of climate change during the students' lifetime motivated young people.

Scientists have backed the protests. Thousands in Great Britain, Finland, Germany and the U.S. have signed petitions supporting the students.

Pointing The Finger At Politicians

Thunberg was named a possible choice for the Nobel Peace Prize. She spoke at a March 15 rally in Stockholm, Sweden. She said the world faces its biggest problem ever, but "it has been ignored for decades."

"And you know who you are, you that have ignored this," she said.

Across the globe, protests were big and small. All of them urged politicians to act on climate change while also highlighting other environmental problems.

In India's capital of New Delhi, schoolchildren protested inaction on climate change. They demanded action from their government. Students there want India's government to tackle rising air pollution levels in the country. Pollution levels there are often far higher than World Health Organization limits.

In Paris, France, teenagers crowded the cobblestoned streets around the domed Pantheon building. Some criticized French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron sees himself as a main supporter of the 2015 Paris climate deal. There, many countries agreed to fight global warming. However, Macron is criticized by activists. They think he's too business-friendly and isn't eager enough to reduce emissions of pollutants.

It was Paris high school student Raphael Devautour's first protest. He compared it to peace protests starting in the late 1960s. "We can feel that something is happening," he said. "When the youths start acting, it gets things moving."

Africa Will Be Hit The Hardest

In South Africa's capital, Pretoria, one protester held a sign reading, "You'll Miss The Rains Down in Africa." It was a reference to the famous song by the band Toto. More than 1 billion people live in Africa. Experts expect African countries to be hardest hit by warming.

Meanwhile, Africa contributes the least to global warming. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), cause heat to stay trapped in Earth's atmosphere. Scientists believe this has caused the temperature rise.

Speakers at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., stood behind a banner saying, "We don't want to die."

In Berlin, Germany, police said as many as 20,000 protesters gathered in a downtown square. They marched through the German capital to Chancellor Angela Merkel's office.

Carla Reemtsma is a 20-year-old student who helped organize that protest. "A lot happens on social media because you can reach a lot of young people very quickly," she said.

Students Organize Rallies

Azalea Danes is a student at the Bronx High School of Science. She wasn't a climate activist until two weeks ago when she read about Thunberg. Danes was inspired by Thunberg and became one of the main organizers of the youth climate strike in New York City, where she organized thousands to rally in three places on March 15.

That shows how these protests are organized from the bottom up, she said.

Volker Quaschning is an engineering professor at Berlin's University of Applied Sciences. Quaschning said politicians often give students little credit.

"That's why they need our support," he said. Quaschning added that if people do nothing, parts of Earth could be unlivable by 2099.

However, some politicians praised the students. Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen showed up at the protest in his country's capital of Copenhagen. He tweeted, "We must listen to the youth. Especially when they're right."

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