Today, thousands of schoolchildren across the UK – including from Devon – are due to strike, in a call for action on climate change. It follows similar protests across the World. More than 200 academics back the UK schools' climate change strikes; the National Association of Head Teachers says the action "needs to be applauded."
The number of those taking part in Friday’s strike is growing rapidly, amid mounting evidence of the scale and impact of the climate emergency. There are more than 50 confirmed events from Fort William to Hastings, with more added each day.
The UK day of action is part of a movement that started in August when Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old schoolgirl, held a solo protest outside Sweden’s parliament. Globally, up to 70,000 schoolchildren each week are taking part in 270 towns and cities.
Individual demonstrations have already been held in the UK, but Friday’s coordinated day of action is expected to see the biggest protests by students and young people in the UK since the student strikes of 2010 over tuition fees.
Let's take back control! If we want to save our future, we are going to have to take to the streets! 💪 #ClimateJustice waits for nobody! https://t.co/r36EXKdUHT#YouthStrike4Climate #Fridays4Future #Youth4ClimateJustice pic.twitter.com/jzaZNpYVsN— UKYCC (@ukycc) February 7, 2019
We’ll be striking on Friday 15th February 11am - 2pm outside #Exeter County Hall to demand that @DevonCC declare a #ClimateEmergency !Join us to save our future!🌎#Fridays4Future #FridayForFuture #ClimateAction #YouthClimateStrike #schoolstrike4climate #Youth4Climate #exeterhour pic.twitter.com/ceVAPKGDVH— Fridays For Future - Exeter (@fridaysforfutu6) January 27, 2019
Kids up and down the country are getting ready to strike from school this Friday over #ClimateChange because politicians aren't doing enough to secure their future >> https://t.co/dWZwwOyLly— Greenpeace UK (@GreenpeaceUK) February 12, 2019
There is growing alarm across the world over climate change:
For a long time, the biggest categories in @YaleClimateComm's Six Americas of Global Warming were Cautious and Concerned. Today, that is no longer true. pic.twitter.com/ZRezobr2gf— Katharine Hayhoe (@KHayhoe) February 12, 2019
It’s not hard to see why – with headlines such as "A third of Himalayan ice cap doomed":
At least a third of the huge ice fields in Asia’s towering mountain chain are doomed to melt due to climate change, according to a landmark report, with serious consequences for almost 2 billion people.
Even if carbon emissions are dramatically and rapidly cut and succeed in limiting global warming to 1.5C, 36% of the glaciers along in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya range will have gone by 2100. If emissions are not cut, the loss soars to two-thirds, the report found.
The glaciers are a critical water store for the 250 million people who live in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region, and 1.65 billion people rely on the great rivers that flow from the peaks into India, Pakistan, China and other nations.
"This is the climate crisis you haven’t heard of," said Philippus Wester of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (Icimod), who led the report. "In the best of possible worlds, if we get really ambitious [in tackling climate change], even then we will lose one-third of the glaciers and be in trouble. That for us was the shocking finding."
On 21 February, there will be another demonstration outside DCC’s County Hall in Exeter when a Climate Emergency motion – previously posted about here – is debated by the Full Council. DCC’s Cabinet recommended that Devon should become carbon neutral by 2050; a similar motion in Cornwall was recently passed with 2030 as the target. The IPCC warns we have just 12 years left to take action.
