Inspired by her role model, Greta Thunberg, from Sweden, a young Finnish student is spending her school day at the steps of Parliament Building in Helsinki on March 15, 2019. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today / Click to view gallery
”When the adults are not mature enough to tell it as it is, children need to take this responsibility!”
This was the core message of the Finnish youth, their global counterparts and the organizers of global climate strike for the future on Friday.
Thousands of Finnish kids walked out of their schools and protested outside of their local town halls, squares and in Helsinki in front of the Parliament Building, in a show of solidarity in the global strike on climate change.
The climate strikes were planned in over a hundred countries on six continents worldwide.
Inspired by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish student who was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, Finnish pupils across 32 municipalities in boycotted their classes and called attention to the inaction of political leaders in fighting for climate change.
Greta Thunberg became a symbol of youth environmental movement after starting the first ”school strike for climate” outside the Swedish Parliament Building in 2018.
In the capital Helsinki, thousands of students gathered at the Senate Square and subsequently demonstrated in front of the parliament demanding immediate climate action from the politicians.
The organizers highlighted that the children around the world would be the first generation to face the harsh impacts of the climate crisis and were thus asking the global leaders: ”Why should we study for a future which may not be there?”
