15 Mar 2019; AFP: Tens of thousands of young people skipped school across the globe on Friday and marched through the streets on a global day of student protests aiming to push world leaders into action on climate change.
Classrooms in capitals from Bangkok to Berlin, Lagos to London were expected to be empty, as the ambitious organisers of the student strike hoped to stage 1,000 demos in more than 100 countries.
Students flooded into the streets across Europe and Asia carrying placards that read "There is no planet B", "You're destroying our future" and "If you don't act like adults, we will."
Despite 30 years of warnings about dire impacts, carbon dioxide emissions hit record levels in 2017 and again last year.
Loading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases at current rates, scientists agree, will eventually lead to an uninhabitable planet.
In Stockholm, Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg who inspired the protests, was thronged by journalists and several dozen protesters, one carrying a banner declaring "Make the Climate Greta Again".
"I don't think I was really behind this movement, I think it was already there and just needed a spark to light up," she told Swedish public television station SVT.
"We are living through an existential crisis that has been ignored for decades and if we do not act now it may be too late," said Thunberg, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her activism.
In Delhi, one of the world's most polluted cities, 200 students took part in a colourful protest, waving ribbons, juggling and performing stunts with hoops.
"We have to make a choice whether we want to sit and be indifferent or do something for our planet," said 16-year-old student Srijani Datta, who also issued a warning to the world's politicians.
"Most of us are 16-17 and we are going to turn 18 soon. We are going to be eligible for voting. As voters we will show we care about climate change. If you can't give us that (fresh air and water), you will not get our votes."
In Sydney, 18-year-old Charles Rickwood, warned that if nothing is done, Australia's famous Great Barrier Reef could be destroyed.
"Especially if current trends in the environment continue, we'll see the one, two degrees increase in our ocean then it will simply become unsustainable and we could lose the entire Great Barrier Reef," he told AFP.
- 'The youth are rising up' -
However, the demos attracted mixed reactions from politicians.
In Australia, Education Minister Dan Tehan said the strike was "not something that we should encourage."
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