“The Greatest Threat to Our Planet Is the Belief That Someone Else Will Save It” (Robert Swan)
You probably heard about it, potentially saw it and maybe you have walked along. We are talking about the school strikes, which are organized by students from all over the world. They skip classes on Fridays during and go on the streets to protest.
Fridays for Future is a global student movement committed to climate change. It was initiated by Greta Thunberg, to which most climatic crushers invoke. Greta is a 16-year-old girl from Sweden who decided to skip class on August 20, 2018. She then sat, for a period of three weeks during class time, in front of the Swedish Parliament building in Stockholm with a sign saying “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (strike for the climate).
On the 8th of September Greta announced that she would continue to boycott her education on Fridays after the parliamentary elections on September 9, 2018, until Sweden’s climate policy complied with the principles of the Paris Climate Agreement. For that she used the hashtag “#FridaysForFuture” which later went viral. Through her protest she gained international attention leading to an expansion of her movement with groups of students protesting worldwide for their future.
The school strike addresses the failure of politicians to tackle human-caused climate change. The climate change is a “long-standing real threat to the earth and mankind” and threatens the future of our earth, the people, but specifically us, the young generation, who will be exposed to the consequences in the future. Climate policy is thus seen as a social policy. According to the FFF (Friday’s for future), the strike is not directed against schools and universities, but should encourage action. You do not need to learn for a future that is not worth living. The existential question is given more value by the FFF than the Friday school attendance. Climate change is not waiting for our graduation and if the adults don’t save our earth we have to act: “Act finally – so we have a future!”
By Antonia Brinker & Anabel Herzsprug (antwerpmeetssustainabiliy@zoho.com)
Antwerp Meets Sustainability 