Culture

Looks Like 2019’s Global Climate Strike Was The Biggest Climate Protest In History

Strength in numbers.

by Joseph Earp  21 September 2019
Signs at the 2019 Global Climate Strike

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It’s very easy to feel hopeless when it comes to the grave threat posed to human civilisation by climate change.

After all, the prognosis from most scientists is extremely not good. We have a matter of years — not decades, years — to get carbon emissions under control. If we don’t, then we will reach the point of no return. When certain thresholds are breached, there’s no turning back from them; sea level rise, for instance, will guarantee even more warming.

Time is not on our side, and it’s getting to us. That’s clear from the increasingly hysterical, pessimistic nature of op-eds coming out of the United States, and that’s clear from the ennui increasingly growing in the young.

But the worst thing that we can do in the face of such threats is give up hope. And yesterday’s Global Climate Strike, organised and spearheaded by a teenager from Sweden, Greta Thunberg, was proof that hope isn’t lost yet.

In fact, the Global Climate Strike proved that everybody can make a difference. Sydney’s strike, at which 50,000 attendees marched, was composed of people from all walks of life, coming together to demand change. And quickly.

Of course, given the nature of the threat, this is a movement being spearheaded by the young. Schoolchidren; teenagers; 20-somethings. These were the forces for good calling on the Boomers who have had the whole world laid out at their feet for decades to finally listen to someone else for a change.

After all, the future belongs to the young.

The Global Climate Strike Breakdown, In Numbers

Number of events held around the globe: 2,500

Number of countries involved: Over 150

Number of people striking in France (as reported by Vox): 40,000

Number of people striking in Ukraine: 2,600

Number of people striking in South Africa: 5,000

Number of people striking in Turkey: 10,000

Number of people striking in Japan: 5,000

Number of people striking in London: 100,000

Number of people striking in Australia: 330,000

Number of people striking in New York City: 250,000

Number of people striking in Germany: 1.4 million

The Australian Climate Strike Breakdown, In Numbers

Number of people striking in Sydney: More than 50,000

Number of people striking in Tasmania: 22,000

Number of people striking in Melbourne: Estimated 100,000