Similar protests are taking place on Friday in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and North America. The worldwide effort has been organised under the hashtagIn Cape Town, over a thousand learners from numerous schools across the province gathered with bright coloured posters outside Parliament. They chanted, “Stop denying! Our earth is dying”, “Mother earth, can we fix it? Mother Earth, yes we can!” and “Change your mind, not your planet.
“When I was 11 years old, my parents took me on a trip around Africa, and because of that, I felt first hand the dramatic effects of climate change,” said Ruby Sampson, a Grade 12 student at Wynberg girls high. Inspired by “Politicians have been ignoring it for generations but you have activists and scientists that have been telling us that this has been coming for many decades,” Sampson said. Looking around, she said about the protest, “It’s overwhelming but fantastic” that all these people have joined.“Climate change is important for the youth to care about because we are the ones who will be affected by it.
Engelbrecht said the environmental crisis was dire and the South African government had about a decade to turn it around. “But for that to happen, government needs to change all coal power stations to renewable energy right now … There is money for it and there are solutions but it’s about the political will.”
Why encourage kids in protests and strikes. Rather take them on a field trip and teach them how to save the world.
Is this climate change thing not a hoax? Usa is resigning from Paris climate agreement by 2020 sighting that it stifles US economy! A third world country(SA) embraces it leading to massive job losses!!! So the economy of a country can suffer as long as some people are rich