Fridays for Future: Thousands demonstrate at the global climate strike

With demonstrations in almost 250 locations in Germany this Friday, the climate protection movement Fridays for Future (FFF) is calling for more ambition from politicians in the fight against global warming. Hundreds more rallies and so-called climate strikes are planned in schools around the globe – demanding a rapid exit from coal, oil and gas. “It has never been clearer than this summer: We are experiencing live the worsening of the climate crisis and at the same time a government without a climate policy plan,” said activist Annika Rittmann of the German Press Agency.

As always, a particularly large number of participants in this country are likely to flock to the cities with millions of inhabitants. Herbert Grönemeyer, among others, will be playing live at the rally in Hamburg, and a performance by the pop band Juli is planned in Berlin.

It is now the 13th global “school strike for the climate”. The movement was started five years ago by the Swede Greta Thunberg.

Thousands demonstrate with Fridays for Future in Berlin

In Berlin, several thousand people took part in the demonstration with Fridays for Future. The demonstrators gathered at the Brandenburg Gate on Friday afternoon and wanted to march through the government district after an opening rally. The police did not initially have an initial number of participants.

There were a lot of younger people among the demonstrators, and apparently also a lot of students’ age. Banners read “Climate protection is a fundamental right” and “Profit today, dead world tomorrow.” Flags of the environmental protection initiatives Greenpeace and BUND were also on display.

In Germany, the movement is calling for the introduction of climate money and the tightening of climate protection laws. The so-called climate money is stipulated in the coalition agreement between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP. It is intended to socially compensate for rising prices for the emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases. The current climate protection law plans to reduce climate-damaging emissions by 65 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. According to the Federal Environment Agency, the reduction is currently around 41 percent.

Hundreds of additional demonstrations and protests are planned around the world from Friday to Sunday, with organizers expecting millions of people to attend. According to the Climate Action Network, the “historic mobilization” is also aimed at a climate summit on September 20th in New York (Climate Ambition Summit), to which UN Secretary-General António Guterres has invited.

Global climate protests start in the Arctic

Climate researchers in the Arctic started the global climate protest day with a picture of the North Pole. Almost 40 scientists from an expedition on the research ship “Polarstern” posed for the photo behind a banner with the inscription “We deliver the facts. It’s time to act.” The recording was published on Friday by scientists from Bremerhaven’s Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) on the online platform X, but was taken a few days ago due to the unpredictable weather conditions in the region.

The AWI scientists demanded in the article that fossil fuels must urgently be put to an end. In doing so, they supported a central demand of the climate protection movement Fridays for Future for a rapid exit from coal, oil and gas.

The leading Fridays for Future activists Greta Thunberg and Luisa Neubauer shared the Arctic researchers’ post on their X accounts, meaning the post gained enormous reach in the early hours of the morning. “The climate strike is starting worldwide, starting with the North Pole,” wrote Neubauer.

Germany is already 1.6 degrees warmer

Despite all the climate protection promises of recent years, global emissions have reached a new high in 2022, according to figures from the International Energy Agency. The world has already warmed by around 1.1 degrees compared to pre-industrial times, and Germany has even warmed by 1.6 degrees. The eight warmest years since weather records began have been the last eight.

Fridays for Future activist Rittmann referred to the fatal consequences of global warming, such as the hurricanes over the Mediterranean that led to the catastrophe in Libya, burning and flooded Greek islands and also here in Germany heavy rain, drought and heat deaths. “It has never been more important than at this time for people to take to the streets with us to stand up together for the vision of a better future.”

Activist Pit Terjung said that halfway through its term in office, the traffic light government’s climate footprint looks disastrous. “With the threat of gutting the climate protection law, which Fridays for Future fought hard for, it is now planning an intolerable step backwards.”

The activist Luisa Neubauer said on Instagram that experience shows that the government only reacts to pressure from the street when it comes to climate protection. She wrote on Twitter: “We young people will not be able to solve our problems alone. We appeal to all generations and all professional groups to also take responsibility.”

According to a survey by Infratest Dimap, Fridays for Future has not yet been able to fundamentally change Germans’ attitudes towards climate and environmental issues. For three quarters of Germans (75 percent), the demonstrations had little (35 percent) or even no influence (40 percent) on their personal attitude to climate and environmental issues, as can be seen from the “Germany trend” in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”. Only 23 percent feel strongly (19 percent) or very strongly (4 percent) influenced by the movement.