Last night, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage ducked out of Channel 4’s debate on climate – instead, they were represented by ice sculptures, a signal to the melting planet, which the two worryingly popular political leaders are seemingly happy to leave to burn.
When the British prime minister refuses to partake in a conversation on climate change, is it any wonder UK kids have declared the election 2019 a “climate election” as part of a strike happening across the UK today?
According to The Guardian, Beth Irving from the UK Student Climate Network, said: “The upcoming election will determine how the UK addresses climate change, with significant effects for the planet and its people. We have just a small window of time for action and the next few years are crucial.”
The idea of walking out of schools on Fridays to protest against climate change started last August when Greta Thunberg began her weekly sit in outside Sweden’s parliament. Since then, the movement has grown by thousands and takes place in over 150 countries around the world.
However, today’s protest in Britain feels especially urgent. This week, scientists warned that we might have already gone past a series of important points of no return in terms of climate change. Professor Tim Lenton from the University of Exeter told the press: “We might already have crossed the threshold for a cascade of interrelated tipping points. The simple version is the schoolkids [striking for climate action] are right: we are seeing potentially irreversible changes in the climate system underway, or very close.”
A separate study by the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation, announced this week, found that greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere are at an all-time high.
In Australia, youth climate protesters also took to the streets today, led by a teenager whose house burnt down in the New South Wales bush fires. Gathering outside the Liberal party offices, their posters read: “denial is not a policy” and “your thoughts and prayers are not enough”.