WeekforFuture 20 to 27th of September!.

Countdown to Global #WeekForFuture #ClimateStrike!

"Millones de nosotros jóvenes saldremos de nuestras aulas, lugares de trabajo y hogares para unirnos en las calles y exigir acción climática y justicia climática. Hacemos una llamada a la participación masiva de los adultos, junto con los jóvenes, para mostrar que los adultos también están preocupados y quieren unir fuerzas en este esfuerzo global para crear conciencia y motivar a los líderes más obstinados a enfrentar la realidad y actuar."

En todo el mundo,

September 20 - 27, 2019.

It’s been a torrid summer and it will be a hot September for climate activists as we move towards the global #WeekForFuture involving mobilizations in almost every  single country around the world.  

In over 2400 events taking place from September 20th through 27th, millions of us will walk out of our classrooms, workplaces and homes to join together in the streets and demand climate action and climate justice. We’re calling for massive participation on the part of adults --  alongside young people -- to show that adults too are concerned and want to join forces in this global effort to raise awareness and to motivate more stubborn leaders to face reality and to act. 

WeekforFuture 20 to 27th of September! Let us know if you’d like to organize an event in your community. Find info on Fridaysforfuture.org and 

register your strike here. 

The week’s crescendo of events will bracket the UN Climate Action Summit taking place in New York on September 23rd. We’ll be sending global leaders the message that our #houseisonfire and that we’re calling on them to do what the science clearly tells us must be done.   

Over 115 countries and 1000 cities have already registered events and, as we’ve seen on previous occasions, the number will continue growing rapidly as we move towards the #WeekForFuture. 

All eyes are on the United States which already has 145 cities signed up, with participation that is expected to be tenfold when compared with  the first two global strikes in March and May of this year. 

New York is expecting a huge turnout, as is Montreal (Canada) which saw 150,000 take to the streets to demand climate action in the largest strike so far without the presence of Greta Thunberg. 

Also, within the week, on September 21st we are joining forces in many countries with World Clean Up Day, a day in which volunteers come together to clean up the planet. In some locations in the EU activists will charge the government 10Euro/hour for cleaning up the rubbish that corporates push onto citizens. Let’s face it, much of this rubbish is created by the distance products are transported to, from the cheap labour to the rich consumer. Last year there were 18 million participants in World Clean Up Day in 157 countries. Find or start a clean up in your community. Here’s how to get involved. 

During the #WeekForFuture there will be a wide variety  of actions in locations around the world with performance protests, die-ins, chanting and drumming, People’s Assemblies, #BellForFuture, #TreesForFuture, #ScientistsForFuture, #ResearchersDesk and on the 22/9 #BikeStrikes with #CarFreeDay.

To date, #FridaysForFuture events have taken place in 173 countries, meaning that only 22 still remain outside of the #FridaysForFuture network. Another country to watch is India where the movement is growing quickly and 72 cities have already registered events for the global #WeekForFuture. 

WeekforFuture 20 to 27th of September! Let us know if you’d like to organize an event in your community. Find info on Fridaysforfuture.org and 
register your strike here. 

Greta Thunberg and #Fridays

Greta has now arrived in the US, where she will attend the UN Climate Summit.  Because she does not fly, she crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a zero emissions sailboat. 

It’s expected that her presence over coming months will turbo-charge the North American movement, the way she has in Europe and elsewhere over the last eight months. While Greta has been striking for over a year, the #FridaysForFuture movement really began to take off after she made her now iconic speech at the COP24 in Katowice, Poland.   

The “Greta Effect” has fanned the movement which grew up spontaneously around her. On March 15th, on the 1st #GlobalStrike, a staggering 2.3 million people in 135 countries took to the streets, creating a historic event after years of public apathy and resignation on the climate front in many countries around the world. 

August 20th, 2019 marked the one year anniversary of Greta Thunberg’s #ClimateStrike, when she first sat outside of the Swedish parliament demanding action to combat climate breakdown with her now iconic sign proclaiming “school strike for climate”. 

That seemingly insignificant act of civil disobedience on the part of a single student skipping school to protest for her future has inspired a new form of environmental activism; today there is a steadily growing movement of strikes that take place weekly in over 750 cities and towns around the world. These are the backbone of the movement and have created a grass-roots body that mobilizes people of every age for the global strikes. 

The network of weekly strikers provides a capillary presence and enabled, for instance, the quick organization of #SOSAmazonia rallies last Friday in hundreds of cities, piggybacking on  our weekly Friday strikes, rather than organizing from scratch. Such flexible and reactive activism is new in the climate realm, giving us the sense that activism can spread like wildfires when the themes are deeply felt.  

Much has happened in this past year. We have felt a shift in public awareness, press coverage, a shift in political framing from 2050 to 2030 and, in some cases, political messaging in terms of the climate crisis. Climate Emergency has been declared in hundreds of jurisdictions, plus a handful of countries having declared on a national level. That said, nothing of significance has happened so far that gives us any confidence that a safe pathway to a 1.5° C increase in global temperature is being sought and built. 

European meeting of the #FridaysforFuture movement!

Lausanne, Switzerland, August 5th to 9th

More than 400 young climate strike activists (including Greta Thuberg herself) came from 38 European countries,to gather at the start of August for a 5-day summit in Switzerland, Lausanne called SMILE (SMILE = Summer Meeting In Lausanne Europe). Activists could choose from dozens of workshops and forums related to climate change and mobilization, plus a number of plenary sessions plus a strike on Friday afternoon as the final act of the session. 

One output from the summit was the Lausanne Climate Declaration, a joint statement made by the activists present, with a declaration of values, of intent and of three demands: 

1. Keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 °C compared to pre-industrial levels.

2. Ensure climate justice and equity.

3. Listen to the best united science currently available.

smileforfuture.eu #smileforfuture #fridaysforfuture 


We hope you’re all getting involved in organizing lots of local events for the #WeekForFuture. It’s going to be massive.