Here in New York City, public school administrators say they won’t mark students as absent if they have a parent or guardian’s permission to join the Global Climate Strike on Friday, September 20. The youth-led protest will come just days before world leaders gather for a global climate summit at the United Nations headquarters. The strike was inspired by Greta Thunberg, a teenage climate activist who last year began skipping classes each Friday to protest outside the Swedish parliament demanding action on catastrophic climate change. Thunberg spoke on Democracy Now! earlier this week, after she sailed across the Atlantic in a zero-emissions racing boat to attend U.N. climate talks and to join protests in the U.S.
Greta Thunberg: “On Friday, I am going to — this Friday, the 13th, I am going to join the school strike for the climate outside the White House in Washington, D.C.”
This week, the head of Amnesty International, Kumi Naidoo, sent a letter to 30,000 schools around the globe asking them to allow students to join climate strikes worldwide.