By Maggie Sawant, First Year Law
In spite of the grim weather, thousands of children gathered on College Green today to once again protest against government inaction on climate change.
The children protested outside College Green, where Bristol City Council is based, between 11am and 1pm. Hundreds of them then marched up Park Street, completely halting the flow of traffic on one side of the road.
Today’s protests are not only UK-wide. They are international. The students on College Green form only one legion of children across the world who are pressuring their governments to make constructive progress in the fight against climate change.
Children in 123 countries are participating in the strikes today, in more than 2,000 separate towns and cities, making this the largest environmental protest in history.
Fabulous revolting - school strike, College Green #Bristol.... #climatestrike #globalclimatestrike #SchoolStrike4Climate #FridaysForFuture @GretaThunberg pic.twitter.com/Q4z1CDdKVm
— Emma Palmer (@emmapalmer2018) March 15, 2019
The #FridaysForFuture movement started last year when 15-year-old Greta Thunberg, recently nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, missed school for 2 weeks to protest outside the Swedish Parliament, handing out leaflets stating: ‘I am doing this because you adults are shitting on my future.’
More protests are planned to take place in Bristol on either 13 or 15 April and are expected to continue on a monthly basis until the government changes its climate agenda.
Following the wave of climate protests on 15 February, taking place in 60 locations across the country, Prime Minister Theresa May criticised the school strikers, stating that ‘disruption increases teachers’ workloads and wastes lesson time’.
However, Thunberg’s response to those who tell her she should be at school is as follows: ‘What am I missing? What am I going to learn in school? Facts don’t matter anymore, politicians aren’t listening to scientists, so why should I learn?’.
The UK government is yet to declare a climate emergency.
Featured images: Maggie Sawant / Epigram
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