Indian Students To Bunk School This Friday, Joining Global Protest For Climate Change

We’ve all talked about climate change. On one hand, scientists warn doomsday is fast approaching due to inaction in reversing climate change. On the other hand, too many see it as a distant threat that isn’t quite real just yet. Well, all that has changed as bright-eyed young students across the world sat up to take notice.

What began with Greta Thunberg, a Swedish 16-year-old environmental activist has taken on new life. For the uninitiated, Greta started her protests in August 2018 skipping school on Fridays for a strike outside Sweden’s parliament.

She later roasted world leaders at the World Economic Forum accusing them of being accountable for the climate crisis.

“You only speak of green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular. You are not mature enough to tell it like is. Even that burden you leave to us children. But I don’t care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet,” Greta proclaimed.

“Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. It is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few,” in her impassioned speech at COP Katowice, 2018.

Her protests acted as a clarion call for students worldwide. Millions of young mind across Australia, Thailand, Uganda and the United Kingdom joined Greta in skipping school in protest of insufficient remedial recourse against climate change.

Now, what may soon be the largest environmental rally in history is all set to hit closer to home. On Friday the 15th March, students from over 90 nations plan to join this strike, reports News18. This means Indian students across the country will be taking to the streets in hopes of compelling the government to act.

Student groups from Indian cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Delhi as well as Bhavnagar in Gujarat, Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh, and Udaipur are to skip school in protest. Tomorrow’s strike is a global one and an offshoot of #FridaysForFuture movement. The list of Indian cities and schools participating is mentioned here.

Greta intends to continue her Friday protests until Sweden is in line with the Paris Agreement that seeks to restrict global temperature rise in this century to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

For the sake of the free world, let’s hope our leaders take the cue from young Greta. “Don’t care about being popular”, “care about climate change” the lass has certainly got it right. Hasn’t she?