Greater Victoria students flood the lawns of the B.C. Legislature Friday to join a global strike to demand climate action.
The mobilization is part of a sustained campaign by youth to put pressure on adults, governments and corporations to divest from fossil fuels and invest in post-carbon, renewable energy infrastructure.
The strikes are inspired by the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who started the School Strike for Climate in August of 2018.
Greater Victoria students flood the lawns of the B.C. Legislature to join a global strike to demand climate action.@VictoriaNews #yyj #YouthStrike4Climate pic.twitter.com/du5g9Gsl3K
— Keri Coles (@KeriColesPhotog) May 3, 2019
RELATED: Greater Victoria youth strike for their future as part of global movement
A 2018 report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlines the drastic measures needed to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 C – the rate that will substantially reduce the risks and effects of climate change.
The report said meeting the ambitious goal “would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.”
“The IPCC report states that we have 11 years to get to 40 per cent emission reductions by 2030,” said 13-year-old Rebecca Wolf Gage, one of the leaders of the strike in Victoria. “Fracking is still continuing in B.C. and we don’t even have a full climate plan. So if our future is doomed why do we go to school? Why don’t we try to save our future? As one of my friends says: Our future is being stolen, we are here to take it back.”
RELATED: Victoria youth head to B.C. Legislature for climate strike
Friday’s protest began at Victoria City Hall before students marched down Government Street to rally at the legislature.
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