Speaking to the BBC, she said: "We've been told we have to take serious action and have just 12 years to cut our carbon emissions in half. As the young people who are going to be most affected by the fact that no-one is taking any action on climate change - this is our entire future.<doc-sep>Thousands of schoolchildren and young people have walked out of classes to join a UK-wide climate strike amid growing anger at the failure of politicians to tackle the escalating ecological crisis. Organisers said more than 10,000 young people in at least 60 towns and cities from the Scottish Highlands to Cornwall joined the strike, defying threats of detention to voice their frustration at the older generation’s inaction on the environmental impact of climate change. Anna Taylor, 17, one of the most prominent voices to emerge from the new movement, said the turnout had been overwhelming. “It goes some way to proving that young people aren’t apathetic, we’re passionate, articulate and we’re ready to continue demonstrating the need for urgent and radical climate action.” Organisers estimated around 3,000 schoolchildren and young people gathered in London, with 2,000 in Oxford, 1,000 each in Exeter and Leeds and several hundred in Brighton, Bristol, Sheffield and Glasgow. Protesters in Brighton. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian In London, the protesters held banners and chanted as police and onlookers watched. They blocked the roads outside parliament chanting “Turn off your engines” at passing cars, and “We want the chance for change now” before mounted police moved them away. There were three arrests in London in connection with the protests. A 19-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl were arrested for obstructing the highway, and a 17-year-old boy for a public order offence. In Manchester, hundreds gathered outside the Central Library before marching to the Royal Northern College of Music with signs reading “Climate over capitalism” and chanting “Whose future? Our future.” Matt Sourby, 18, said his journey from Queen Elizabeth school in Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, was worth it: “This is our future and this is making a difference. The government has to listen. I feel incredibly powerful just being here.” Hettie Ainsworth on the strike in Manchester. Photograph: Poppy Noor/The Guardian The protests won the backing of a former UN climate chief, who said it was “time to heed the deeply moving voice of youth”. Christiana Figueres, who led the historic 2015 Paris agreement, said the fact that children were so worried about their future they were prepared to strike should make adults sit up and take notice. “It is a sign that we are failing in our responsibility to protect them from the worsening impacts of climate change,” she said. The school strike movement started in August when Greta Thunberg, then 15, held a solo protest outside the Swedish parliament. Now, up to 70,000 schoolchildren each week hold protests in 270 towns and cities worldwide. On Friday, tens of thousands marched again, some for the sixth week in succession, through towns and cities across Europe. For the first time up to 1,000 pupils demonstrated in Paris chanting “Don’t go breaking my earth” and “One, two, three degrees – a crime against humanity”. In Berlin, a large crowd gathered for the sixth week in a row. “We’re here now because we want to be able to be here in 50 years’ time,” read one banner. Profile Who is Greta Thunberg? Show 'Never too small to make a difference' In August 2018 Thunberg began a solo climate protest by striking from school in Sweden when aged 15. She has since been joined by tens of thousands of school and university students in Australia, Belgium, Germany, the United States, Japan and more than a dozen other countries. 'Irresponsible children' Speaking at the United Nations climate conference in December 2018, she berated world leaders for behaving like irresponsible children. And in January 2019 she rounded on the global business elite in Davos: “Some people, some companies, some decision-makers in particular, have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money. And I think many of you here today belong to that group of people.” Inspiration Veteran climate campaigners are astonished by what has been achieved in such a short time. Thunberg has described the rapid spread of school strikes for climate around the world as amazing. “It proves you are never too small to make a difference,” she said. Her protests were inspired by US students who staged walk-outs to demand better gun controls in the wake of multiple school shootings. Family Her mother, Malena Ernman, has given up her international career as an opera singer because of the climate effects of aviation. Her father is actor Svante Thunber. Greta has Asperger’s syndrome, which in the past has affected her health, he says. She sees her condition not as a disability but as a gift which has helped open her eyes to the climate crisis. Photograph: Michael Campanella/CampanellaFoto Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback. Individual protests have previously been held in the UK, but the nationwide action on Friday was the first coordinated walkout. Organisers in the UK said that two weeks ago they would have been happy if hundreds of young people had taken part. But they said the huge turnout – in the face of threats of recriminations from some schools and criticism in sections of the media – showed the strength of feeling among young people about the climate crisis. Jake Woodier, of the UK Youth Climate Coalition, said: “What we’ve witnessed today is thousands upon thousands of students and young people descend on their towns and cities to demonstrate the urgent need for radical climate action.” He said a new generation of young leaders was emerging – many of them young women – who had spread the message about the climate crisis and the strike through social media, radio, television and newspapers over the past two weeks. “The size of the Youth Strike 4 Climate is testament to the passion and awareness among young people that we need to fight for a future that simply doesn’t exist because we’ve been betrayed by the inaction of those in positions of power.” Students from Graveney School in Tooting, south London, join the protest in Westminster. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA The strike was supported by the Green MP Caroline Lucas and several frontbench Labour MPs.<doc-sep>10:30 The climate change strikers have found an unusual source of support: Conservative MPs who have issued comments applauding those who took time off school or college to join the protests. They include Claire Perry, the energy minister, who said: “I’m incredibly proud of young people who feel strongly that we need to take action.” She was joined by the former higher education minister Sam Gyimah, who tweeted approvingly: “Best to see this as an applied citizenship lesson on one day of the year.” Meanwhile, Richard Benyon, the MP for Newbury, met a group of strikers at his office in the town. “Great to chat with young people so passionate about #climatechange. Glad to be able to talk of UK’s world-leading achievements in reducing [greenhouse gas] emissions and commitments to ocean protection and end[ing] coal power generation,” he later tweeted. Among the homemade signs on display in Newbury was one reading: “I’ll focus on my A-levels when you focus on the sea levels.” But the official position from the Department for Education was unchanged. “I want young people to be engaged in key issues affecting them and involving themselves in causes they care about. But let me be clear – missing class won’t do a thing to help the environment. All they will do is create extra work for teachers,” said Damian Hinds, the education secretary. “This is ultimately a matter for headteachers to consider, but I’ve repeatedly said I don’t want teachers being burdened with extra and unnecessary workload, and that’s exactly what these strikes would lead to.” Only a small proportion of the UK’s 8 million school pupils are likely to have taken part in today’s action, although some schools allowed pupils to join in the protests if accompanied by parents or given written permission. While the Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman, Layla Moran, a former teacher, joined a protest in Oxford, the shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, was more nuanced in her support: “I’m inspired by the many young people who want to support the #schoolstrike4climate movement, but I hope it can evolve so we can build on its success without the loss of time in the classroom.”<doc-sep>Climate change is the greatest threat that we all face but it is the school kids of today whose futures are most on the line. They are right to feel let down by the generation before them and it’s inspiring to see them making their voice heard today. #SchoolStrike4Climate<doc-sep>
Story highlights More than 10,000 people took part in protests across the UK The strikes were inspired by Swedish teenager who has berated world leaders for climate inaction "There is the need for urgent and radical climate action," organizers told CNN (CNN) — Thousands of school students walked out of classrooms across the UK on Friday to join a national climate change protest. The protest, called Youth Strike 4 Climate, took place in more than 60 British cities and towns from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands. Waving banners which read “if you do not act as adults, we will” and “the dinosaurs thought they had time too”, thousands of students gathered in front of the Houses of Parliament in London. Thousands of students here !! Literally amazing !!! #fridays4future #youthstrike4climate I can’t believe it —- tears in my eyes xxxxxx pic.twitter.com/JSyR7iqPup — zo (@zorasbash) February 15, 2019 The aim of the strike was to raise awareness of the growing threats of climate change and urge the UK government to declare a climate emergency, organizers of the protest told CNN. Jake Woodier of the UK Youth Climate Coalition, who helped coordinate the strikes, said that more than 10,000 people across the UK took part in the protests. “I think the key message out of it is young people and students are demonstrating to those in power that there is the need for urgent and radical climate action,” he told CNN. Read: What is climate change? Your questions answered 17-year-old Sophie Sleeman, who helped organize a strike in Exeter, Devon, told CNN that her school told her to call off the strike, but that she went ahead as she believes “the education system, the media and government aren’t doing enough to tackle climate change or portray its severity to us.” “I am feeling an incredible sense of solidarity with everyone protesting. I feel like I am implementing change,” she said, adding that more than a 1,000 people took part in the Exeter march. Ann Pettifor, who in 2008 co-authored the Green New Deal, a 10-year plan to phase out fossil fuels recently unveiled by Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, attended the strike in London with her seven-year-old grandson. “These children are going to grow up into radical adults demanding and probably implementing change. We can’t underestimate what an impact a demonstration like this has on young people,” Pettifor told CNN. “We urgently need to get the adults as angry as the young people are. Wildfires, floods and destruction of the environment seems to be the only thing that stirs people and that is a very big problem,” she added. Read: Fighting climate change may be easier than we think The UK strikes are the latest student-led protests against climate inaction. Inspired by teenager Greta Thunberg’s weekly sit-ins outside the Swedish parliament to raise awareness of the crisis, school students in Europe, Australia and the United States have held climate strikes. The strikes come in the wake of a UN report which warns that unprecedented global action is needed to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. 16-year-old Thunberg took the world by storm when she berated world leaders at the UN climate summit and billionaires at Davos for their insufficient efforts to curb emissions in line with goals set out under the 2015 Paris Agreement. “I told them that they belong to that group of people who are most responsible and that the future of humankind rests in their hands, and they didn’t know how to react,” Thunberg told CNN after she addressed Davos elite, including Bono and former Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn. A global school walkout, involving students from more than 40 countries, is planned for March 15.