Climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, drew global praise on Monday for her speech at the UN Climate Action Summit. The Swedish teenager criticised world leaders for their &lsquobusiness as usual&rsquo attitude towards controlling emissions, despite decades of evidence about global warming and the irreversible changes it is wrecking onto the Earth. "To have a 67% chance of staying below a 1.5 degrees global temperature rise&ndashthe best odds given by the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]&ndashthe world had 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit back on January 1, 2018,&rdquo said Thunberg. &ldquoToday that figure is already down to less than 350 gigatons.&rdquo
The address came days after Thunberg called for a global climate strike. Young people across the world marched in protest of their respective governments&rsquo inaction towards robust environmental policymaking, and India was not left behind. Under the #FridaysforFuture (FFF) people&rsquos movement, students, activists and adults across New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and other Indian cities turned up in large numbers for a peaceful protest on September 20.
New Delhi&rsquos protest saw students march from Lodhi Garden to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Their demand was that the Prime Minister&rsquos office declare a climate emergency in India. According to Akshay Kapoor, one of the members of FFF Delhi, over 2000 people joined in with banners and placards. FFF ally organisations such as Extinction Rebellion, Nine is Mine, and Tears of Earth were also present, as were individuals from Amnesty International and Green Peace.
Post the march, representatives from the protestors were invited inside the ministry for assurance that their demands would be taken to the concerned authority. That is likely to be Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, and Minister of State Babul Supriyo. &ldquoThey talked about stuff we already knew about,&rdquo Kapoor later posted on his Instagram, &ldquoand didn&rsquot give us anything solid, anything promising&rdquo. But the protestors remain hopeful, and plan to regroup on September 27.
Why is a travel magazine reporting on a climate strike Put quite simply, there&rsquos little left to see in the world if our ecosystems collapse due to the climate emergency. The preventable destruction of life-supporting habitats and resources has already begun&mdashwe don&rsquot need to remind you of the fires in the Amazon nor the spate of floods that hit multiple states in India this year. In this march towards a doomsday scenario, strong-willed youth movements are worthy of attention. If you plan to join the next series of strikes this Friday, here&rsquos what last week&rsquos turnout looked like