Students and adults alike joined forces on Friday, September 20, 2019. Activists from over 150 countries worldwide took to the streets to demand climate justice. This mass demonstration demanded the attention of lawmakers and had everyone on the Internet talking and sharing their favorite signs from the protests.

Greta Thunberg, age 16, lead this protest. Thunberg is a Swedish climate activist, who has been leaving school on Fridays since August 2018 in order to sit outside the Swedish Parliament and protest the lack of government action. Thunberg has set an example for anyone who cares about the environment and its future. She no longer travels on airplanes, she traveled to the U.S on a zero emissions sailboat, and is vegan. Both actions help reduce her carbon footprint, but commercial change also must occur. To sum up, only 12% of global carbon emissions is caused by residential sources. Less than 100 companies are responsible for almost 50% of carbon emissions worldwide.

Climate Strike 2019 was the largest coordinated mass protest. Thousands of students took to the streets. Thunberg summed up the inspiration of these efforts in her speech to the UN Climate Action Summit, “You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.”