Global Climate Strike begins in Asia, Greta to lead from NY

Courtesy, BBC: Demonstrations are already taking place in Bangkok and later in the day protests are planned in Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar. Many of these events will be on a much smaller scale than what we’re seeing in Australia right now though, and a few other countries like Singapore or South Korea have protests planned only on the weekend.
The international protest from 150 countries comes ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit.

School students on strike in Sydney – BBC
Rosemary Gosper (right) said her family’s thinking of the future of their youngest members. via BBC
Thousands have gathered at The Domain in central Sydney- BBC

The Global Climate Strike comes just before countries will gather at the United Nations for the Climate Action Summit on September 23, an event ahead of the UN General Assembly where countries are supposed to ramp up their ambitions to curb greenhouse gases under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. A second worldwide strike is planned for September 27.
Climate strike march to Ministry of Environment in Bangkok today. Young, passionate, more foreigners than Thais. Kudos to the school children who took part. It’s their future.
Climate strike is underway in Bangkok. Young strikers are playing dead in front of the environment ministry, demanding that the Thai government acts on climate change or “this is what will happen.”
In Hong Kong, students have cancelled their participation because of the ongoing pro-democracy demonstrations, but three climate activist groups are still staging a small protest on Friday.
Doing it for the kids
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Older generations are fighting for the younger ones too.
Australian woman Rosemary Gosper, 32, sent me this picture of her family who all trooped out to the strike in her home city, a bit north of Sydney.
“This is Newcastle, Australia, where I’m marching with three generations of women in my family – my mum, my sister and my nieces.
“I was so proud to be there with them. It’s their future and we want to keep the world habitable for them.”
One thing that’s been noted in the Australia protests is the sheer diversity of those who have turned out – retirees, young parents pushing prams, school children in their uniforms, church groups, sporting teams, the list goes on. Climate change affects us all.
‘I don’t feel like I can have kids’
Young protesters have brought reserves of defiance and hope to these protests – but there is plenty of anger and sadness too.
High school student Juliet, 18, told our correspondent Phil Mercer at Sydney’s demonstration: “I don’t feel like I can have kids. Because it’s too cruel to bring them into a world that’s dying and I think that the fact that that’s what our politicians are putting us through and that so many young people I talk to have that mentality, it’s really sad.”
Pacific islands ‘not drowning but fighting’
We’re heading into late afternoon across the Pacific, where protests have been taking place in small island nations including Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and the French territory of New Caledonia. These are countries facing the very real risk of being swamped by rising seas as the climate warms.
Images and video clips being posted online show people in different locations chanting “we are not drowning – we are fighting”, or variations of the same message. – BBC