On the 15th of March 2019, hundreds of thousands of students in over 100 countries walked out of their classrooms to demand action on climate change with Fridays for Future school strikes. Everywhere across the globe, we are striking for climate, striking for our future.
The future is in our hands
The movement that inspired the strikes, Fridays for Future was founded by Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg after she sat in front of the Swedish parliament in August 2018 to call our world leaders on their lack of action on the climate crisis. Why study for a future, when there may not be one?
Fridays for Future is a youth strike that takes place every Friday to safeguard the future of children.
In just a year, what was once a lone climate strike has now become a global viral phenomenon. Students all over the world are swinging into action with countless demonstrations against climate change taking place every Friday.
“My name is Greta Thunberg. I am 16 years old. I come from Sweden. And I speak on behalf of future generations,” the young climate activist said in a powerful speech given to a room packed with UK members of parliament. “I know many of you don’t want to listen to us – you say we are just children.” According to the report issued by IPCC, the planet will reach the threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by as early as 2030, meaning that the planet has only 10 years to stem catastrophic climate change. For many children, the year 2030 is just the beginning of a great life ahead of them. But as Greta points out, she is not so sure it will be that great for their generation. What kind of future awaits them in 2030? What will the world be like? For children, they have a lot of goals and dreams they want and hope to achieve by 2030, but is that even possible?
Think of ways with children to fight for our future
What kind of future do we want for our children?
What should we leave for our children? Is it wealth? Or knowledge?
No, the greatest and most valuable gift we can give them is a better future, a better world. First, they have to learn to love and protect our home – planet earth. We are all passers-by, guests in the world and the best we can do is to give the rest of our generations who will continue to live on this earth a greener tomorrow.
We are all in this together
We need to safeguard the future together and spread green seeds in hopes of making an impact on more people.
With this in mind, we joined forces with Taiwan Youth Climate Coalition (TWYCC) and headed for Jiaxing Elementary School located in a remote area in Hsinchu on the 6th of March,. Almost 98% of the 20 students the school accommodates are Tayal people, a Taiwanese indigenous group who are naturally amazing singers. We played games with the young students that showed them the importance of protecting our natural environment as well as the impacts of climate change and the things we can do in our daily life to curtail it.
Promising our children a greener future
We believe that like us, you want to give your children a beautiful planet to live on. A planet with changing seasons, breathtaking sunsets and sunrises, sunny and rainy days and beautiful natural landscapes surrounded by the vast ocean, forests and life. The future belongs to the young generations and a sustainable future is in our hands.
