(20 Sep 2019) A wave of climate change protests swept across the globe Friday, with hundreds of thousands of young people sending a message to leaders headed for a U.N. summit: The warming world can't wait for action.
In New York, where public schools excused students' absences for the protest if they had parents' permission, tens of thousands of mostly young people rallied and marched through lower Manhattan, carrying signs with such declarations as "climate change is real" and "Sorry I can't clean my room, I'm busy saving the world."
The protests were partly inspired by the activism of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who has staged weekly demonstrations under the heading "Fridays for Future" over the past year, urging world leaders to step up their efforts against climate change.
The world has warmed about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) since before the Industrial Revolution, and scientists have attributed more than 90 percent of the increase to emissions of heat-trapping gases from fuel-burning and other human activity.
Scientists have warned that global warming will subject Earth to rising seas and more heat waves, droughts, powerful storms, flooding and other problems, and that some have already started manifesting themselves.
Nations around the world agreed at a 2015 summit in Paris to hold warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) more than pre-industrial-era levels by the end of this century.
But U.S. President Donald Trump subsequently announced that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the agreement, which he said benefited other nations at the expense of American businesses and taxpayers.
New York protester Daisha Rivas, 16, a student from the Bronx, worries about low income communities bearing the brunt of climate change.
"It's important because literally we're going to hot box the planet if we don't do something about it," Rivas said, "we have to change the world."
Student protestor Elen Gonzalez,16, asked the question: "We're all one people at the end of the day. And why are we killing our own planet?"
"There is still much that can be done. A lot has to do with like the economy and like the people in power. Like there's so much we can do. Like not only just like recycling and going out and protesting but you know you can like change your forms of energy like. Small suburban homes could turn to like solar powered solar power sorry. And like you know advocate you know there's just so much you can do," Gonzalez said.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
