Worldwide Rallies: Citizens Demanding Immediate Action to Halt Climate Change, Part 3 of a Multi-part Series

The United Nations (UN) continues to warn us about the dangerous, consequences of global warming. Many youths are taking to the streets, protesting the fact that government leaders are taking insufficient action to halt climate change.

In July 2023, torrential rains fell on Korea, causing devastating flash floods and landslides. Deeply concerned about the nation’s many weather-related disasters, hundreds of students from Korea have been skipping school to participate in climate change rallies. “One day, it could be my house that gets flooded. So, I think it is more important to deliver my concerns to the government to take preventive measures rather than going to school. What is important to me right now is not a school test. The test, for me…. surviving is the real test.”

In March 2023, a group of climate change activists from local universities, environmental groups, and other organizations held a climate change rally in Jakarta, Indonesia, demanding that the Indonesian government make climate change a priority. Over the past two years, Italy has suffered many weather-related disasters. Concerned students in Italy have been skipping school to protest the lack of government action. “As we have also seen in the electoral programs, there are really very, very few points regarding the environment and its protection. And what we hope we can do is finally try to move on to a complete ecological transition.”

In Australia, massive, unprecedented wildfires swept through much of the nation in late 2019 and early 2020. “Schoolchildren have today ditched the classroom to take to the streets over the state’s bushfire disaster, which they say was worsened by climate change; protestors even briefly shutting down city traffic to try to make their voices heard.” The school strikes came after a series of disasters in New Zealand, with torrential rainfall and flooding affecting many parts of the nation. The New Zealand students stated that cutting back on animal-people livestock raising would be the fastest way to reduce the country’s GHG emissions. “I think the government needs to take urgent action on climate change. And I think they’re not going to unless people come out and protest and tell them that they have to.”