From Xyza News for Kids
In August 2018, sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg from Sweden started a protest. Why? Because she wanted lawmakers to help fight climate change by upholding commitments from the Paris Agreement (an agreement that nearly 200 countries signed to fight climate change). Since August, she’s camped outside the Swedish parliament every Friday. Thunberg says she was inspired by students who created the “March For Our Lives” movement to promote gun safety in Parkland High School where a shooting occurred earlier in the year.
As word spread of the young girl’s efforts, local and international news organizations caught on, and Thunberg was invited to speak at an international conference in Davos, Switzerland. Her biggest frustration? That today’s policymakers are impacting her and others’ future world.
Thunberg invited young students from around the world to join a protest (#FridaysforFuture) on March 15th so that lawmakers and policymakers take notice of one of the biggest environmental protests in history. Participants in the protest might be from all around the world, but they have similar demands: They want governments to actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some protestors actually want to lower the voting age from eighteen so that their voices can be heard. Most importantly, they want to show that today’s youth should not be dismissed.
Interesting Fact: Greta’s only sixteen-years-old, but she’s already been named TIME magazine’s Most Influential Teens of 2018 and was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by three Norwegian lawmakers!
