With Youth Climate Actions Backed by Leading Experts, Latest Round of Protests Highlights Call for Bold and Urgent Action

Protesters hold signs at the YouthStrike4Climate student march on April 12, 2019 in London. Students are protesting across the U.K. due to the lack of government action to combat climate change. (Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

With Youth Climate Actions Backed by Leading Experts, Latest Round of Protests Highlights Call for Bold and Urgent Action

"We can change it all if we want it all, and we do."

The latest round of weekly climate strikes took place in cities across the globe on Friday as a group of experts said that the youthful protesters deserve the support of the international community, and backed their call for "rapid and forceful action."

London was among dozens of U.K. cities where #FridaysforFuture actions took place. One of the protesters there was 21-year-old Cameron Joshi, who told the Guardian: "The global system of trade benefits them, not us, it's built for consumption. But they're fucking afraid of us."

And they should be, he said.

"They fear us because they know if we get our shit together we can change the world. We're at an absolutely seminal point in history, years of consumerism, capitalism, and environmental murder, and we can change it all if we want it all, and we do."

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teen who spearheaded the school strike for climate campaign, took to Twitter to share images of many of the protests:

Also on Friday, in a letter published at Science, over 20 climate experts--including Michael Mann, Penn State distinguished professor and director the Earth System Science Center, and Stefan Rahmstorf, head of Earth System Analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research--declared their support for the climate protesters, calling their concerns "justified and supported by the best available science."

Campaigns like Fridays for Future and the youth climate strikes are evidence that these young people fully grasp the climate crisis, they wrote, acknowledging that the young activists seek to stop mass extinctions and hold onto "the natural basis for the food supply and well-being of present and future generations."

"Without bold and focused action, their future is in critical danger," the climate experts wrote.

In an early morning tweet responding to Thunberg's 34th week of school climate strikes, Mann pointed to the letter and said, "We've got your back."

Ramstorf, meanwhile, encouraged other scientists to add their names to the letter:

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