my name is Greta Thunberg I'm 16 years old, I come from Sweden and
I want you to panic. I want you to act as if the house was on fire
nothing is being done to stop the climate and ecological crisis
together we are making a difference
we will never stop fighting for this planet
hi everyone I'm Muna Suleiman I'm a campaigner at Friends of the Earth with
only a few days to go to the global climate strikes where young people are
inviting everyone to join them we traveled the UK to speak to the people
at the frontline to ask why they're part of the movement and why they want
everyone to join them we are celebrating those who dare to be different in this
podcast series How To Save The Planet
I'm Francis from the UK student climate network, so the most common question I
get asked is why. why are you here why are you missing valuable education time
why don't you just leave it to the adults they know what they're doing well
it comes down to this we can catch up on work but we can't reverse the climate
crisis I don't want to miss school like the next person I want to get good
grades and go to university but I alongside millions of young people
around the world feel obligated to strike being disenfranchised and
deprived a voice in our future this is the only way we can make our voices
heard for too long our futures have been shunted to the side by powerful people
this cannot be allowed to happen anymore the biggest strength of the global
climate action movement is our unity everything must change and it has to
start today Thank You Francis for that awesome speech inspiring hundreds of
young people in the room. excitingly we've been talking to other young people
across the country about the great work they've been doing so over to them to
hear more. Hi my name is Isabella, I'm 15 years old and I live in Cockermouth in
Cumbria. I'm studying my GCSEs at the moment and I'm also climate activists
I've been striking of the climate since February when I was inspired by the
activism of Greta Thunberg. I feel like I need to strike because if I don't
strike now and do something out then I won't have a future. As well as striking
I've been talking to local politicians teachers on people in the local
community to see how we can reduce our environmental impact. I hope that by
striking the government or realised that we need action now
and that they will actually take the decisive steps needed to stop the
climate crisis that is zan era and she works for a conservation charity with
young people and gets into nature and conservation I am outside a sunny
building in Kings Cross North London today and with less than a week to go to
the global climate strikes I'm really excited to be joining I think over 150
young people who have joined us to talk about what they're planning to do to
prepare for the strikes how they're promoting it how they making sure what
adults are they're loud and clear making sure they demand action on this climate
emergency I'm feeling really inspired I think whenever you're planning work
around strikes or whenever you're planning you know protest and get people
out there you can often feel disconnected and it's really events like
this that remind me why I'm fighting for this movement and remind me why I'm
doing it with this fabulous young people who have just taken charge people have
traveled from all over I just met a young girl from Bristol who actually
spoke at an event in Tuesday as well as he can tell just how busy these young
people are you know honestly they spend their mornings afternoon evening right
now breathing the global strikes I'm really excited to see a spread of people
I've just spoke to someone from Islamic Relief from Friends of the Earth from
Amnesty International and I guess one of the Great's or unifying things of the
climate movement is that everyone can feel connected to it from a different
angle whether it's from faith human rights your own personal needs and
wishes for your future and your own future as a young person so I'm super
super excited I can't wait to hear from people from NUS and to hear the young
people and how they're mobilizing students as well I think all in all it
would be a great day and I just can't forget that the Sun is beaming I mean a
great mood they can only go up from here so my name's Amy I'm 18 and I sort of
started my climb active since through friends Sofia I'm constantly like in
environmental activism so when am I scheduled next week yeah I am at a craft
Council banner making and we meet once a month next week is the first meeting for
me and we are trying to bring some of our
activism together and then following that on the Thursday is actually an
exhibition launch of climate activism and how those Wells can sort of come
together and how climate crisis is a melting pot of issues it's not just
environmental it's intertwining social issues whether that's racism classism
feminism mental health issues that list goes on so I think it's really important
to sort of find your path of what connects you to climate crisis and how
that impacts you and sort of your community yeah and then Friday of course
I'm at the stroke but I think my main thing for Friday is trying to bring
friends that that don't feel aware or know much or experience much about it we
just haven't talked about the strike because I try and get all my friends on
that person that just bangs all about it but you just need to have an emotional
connection to it and I hunt that so my family come from Bangladesh and I've
been there like three or four times and even though the last time I went was
about four years ago now I saw that like physical impacts then when it was
unusually go during the summer which took the monsoon season it gets really
really hot and just seeing that and Bangladesh being one of the most
vulnerable countries impacted and they've actually contributed sort of the
least there were little remarks in comparison to Britain historically and
even right now that is something so personal to me and to my farm even
though with one I talked when I've talked to her about my with my mom it's
the language we use if I've told her climate change she wouldn't have a clue
what I'm talking about but if I just described what it's
happening and having her she would hundred percent understand that so I
think we need to have adjustment and a change in the language we're using to
bring together communities that sort of feel excluded we don't have many years
that people say eleven years but no it's been happening right under our nose for
so many years decades and decades and even now like we're living in Britain
where it's hot as 39° as summer that's not normal I think living in it is it's
personal I think being an activist is passionately caring about an issue it
doesn't have to be climate activism specifically it could be a social issue
it could be anything but it's just actively doing something
and not just thinking about it could be something as small as sharing it on your
Instagram story it's just actively taking that action
and getting off your sofa a bit really yeah so it's about five o'clock I've
just come back from putting up some posters in town for the strike and now
I'm quickly trying to finish off some English and art homework
therefore I've got a call about the green new deal at 6:00
everything's been quite hectic lately what we're planning for the strike and
have loads of homework to do but I am excited for strike even though I'm a bit
nervous no one's going to turn up so we are at the end of the day of our awesome
event with 150 young people from across the country who all made their way to
London today to get ready for strikes I guess I mean the best part of the day I
mean there's so many different things but one thing that stuck out for me was
speaking to your friends and family about the strikes and about the work
that we do I think often we're so we're like let's talk to everybody and then
you forget actually the people in your own personal world who may not be so
connected that has been one thing I'm like I must tell my mom about the global
climate strikes because otherwise I'm definitely done a disservice and then
other than that it's just hearing how much work they've done they've got so
many celebrities on board so many unions and just to see how hard they've worked
and the breath support is really really just hot woman today we're in Cardiff to
talk to some young people who are prepping for the strikes I'm here with
Alex and I'm here with Beth we're at cornerstone and we're running a
community climate assembly and today we're gonna be hearing from some
speakers from both the Cardiff you strike for climate movement and trade
unions and hearing a little bit about the green New Deal and about how we are
supporting each other for the September the 20th the climate strike my name is
Beth Irving I'm 17 years old and I'm from the Cardiff youth strike for
climate movement and I'm studying the International Baccalaureate I think this
gives me quite a rounded understanding of the world in general but it's quite
hard to balance between studies and in terms of September the 20th the focus
is on the UN climate summit on the 23rd which is happening in New York and
trying to put pressure on world leaders to kind of sit up and take notice but
it's also about making the biggest climate mobilization in history we're
calling for a million people on the streets of the UK it's set to be huge
we've got support from a lot of organizations and businesses and it's
about showing that this this is not a one issue crisis this isn't about school
children and their future this is about saving lives now and stopping in
justices from getting any worse we're gonna be setting off an alarm a certain
point during the day to symbolize the panic that people should be feeling of
this being an emergency I think you'll hear us I'm quite involved in a lot of
activist groups mainly in Cardiff and in relation to the sort of hue stripes I'm
involved with the UK student climate network and the Cardiff you strikers
more generally and I'd coordinate with a lot of groups like the women's strike
assembly sort of organize events in Cardiff around the climate crisis as I
was leaving my biology lesson on Friday my girl stopped me cuz she seen me
putting up posters for the youth stripe and then she's asked me about getting
involved and stuff like that so I sent her like an email and with like a list
of events that were sort of happening that she could go to so yeah it has just
been me so far but definitely there's interest among people my age and my
immediate social surroundings who are gaining and interesting I think that is
an idea because it sort of spreads it's like a disease but beneficial one I've
loved nature since I was a little kid but I I really wanted to protect it and
see or anything that was sort of presented to me were these sort of
individual lifestyle choices like I pretty much removed animal products from
my diet I I refuse car lifts from my parents constantly it's placed on the
individual it's blaming the individual for a
problem that's systemic it's just 100 companies producer over 71% of
greenhouse gas emissions and yet governments their response is well it's
really your focus you used a plastic straw
you've strike in January was the first prototype a ring I remember feeling so
nervous but then so you get together and you're all sort of scared children but
when you start shouting it's like the voices of the gods from the heavens
the thing I'm most impacted by it is hope I think it's so easy to reflect on
doom and gloom and you know the challenge ahead of us but when I'm with
so many different people from across society like hope really really
resonates and is just the thing that emits in that space
I'm really really moved by there