On Friday September 20, thousands of young people will be taking to the streets, staying off school, college and university in protest at Government inaction regarding the climate crisis.

The Fridays for Future movement is one of the most important movements in history. We are rapidly nearing the tipping point, which is defined as an irreversible change in the climate system. Children having been taking to the streets to demand that their governments make critical change now.

The Fridays for Futures movement started more than a year ago after then 15-year-old Greta Thunberg discovered the severity of the climate crisis and decided that protesting against the inaction of her Government was more important than her education.

This inspired many young people to speak out and protest against their own governments. By November 2018, 17,000 students in 24 countries joined her. By March 2019, 2.3 million across 135 countries followed. Since then many countries, including Scotland, have declared a climate emergency, but this not enough. These words are useless if significant change does not follow.

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Over the months more and more young people have joined the movement and we are now united over one issue: the lack of Government action on the climate crisis. We are sick and tired of being excluded and ignored by a democratic system to which we have no access. We refuse to sit back while our politicians deprive us of our rights.

As we strike from our education, we demand that our politicians put future generations before party political gain.

We are acting, not for irresponsible and reckless reasons but as a last hope for our future. As horrible as it is to admit, climate change is an issue that has been ignored for far too long and only ultimately futile efforts have been made to mitigate the issue.

Now the youth are taking action and demanding climate justice for our future. We are demanding that a habitable earth to still be there for us and for future generations.

However, this month is different to previous strikes. This month we are asking our parents, grandparents, teachers, lecturers, neighbours and everyone else to join us in solidarity and unite with others across the world to send a message to people in power that we need change, and we need change now. It’s everyone’s turn.

The climate crisis is a threat to everyone, not just the young. So, we call out for you to join us, no matter your age, race, profession or identity, and help us in our cause for definitive action to be taken against the climate crisis now. Only with solidarity can we overcome this problem.

In addition to inviting all members of the public to join us on our strike, we will be hosting a week of action. This includes a wide range of things, from a day of education to a day of destruction.

THE day of education will be held on September 24th. Many critics of the Future for Fridays movement have said that children skipping school are missing out on valuable teaching time.

However, many strikes have been hosting stalls to educate strikers on issues such as the impacts of fast fashion and the meat industry.

The day of education aims to educate members of the public about the severity of the climate crisis and the actions they can take to help. September 21 will host the day of disruption. Actions of legal disruption will take place. However, the scale of disruption will be minimal in comparison to the disruption many countries are beginning to face due to the effects of the climate crisis.

On Friday we will be asking the Scottish and UK Governments to listen to the science. SYCS (Scottish Youth Climate Strikes) have four official demands. The first is that the Government commit to climate justice, and pressure other Governments to declare a climate emergency and prioritise the protection of life on Earth, taking active steps to achieve climate justice.

The second: the Scottish Government agree to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are the three most prevalent greenhouse gasses, and for the climate crisis to be slowed down their emissions must be curbed. For this reason, we demand that the Government change their goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions from 2050 to 2030.

Our third demand is for the national curriculum be reformed to address the ecological crisis as an educational priority.

The severity of the climate crisis is not taught in schools, allowing people to go about their everyday lives without knowing the dangers of the ecological breakdown. Therefore, providing education on the severity of climate change into the school curriculum is the first step towards lasting change as communicating the severity of the issue from childhood would be extremely effective.

Our final demand is for the Government to communicate the severity of the ecological crisis and the necessity to act now to the general public.

There is very little time left to prevent climate change from becoming irreversible and the public must be educated on the subject so that they understand the necessity of doing their part to minimise their carbon footprint.

The Government have the responsibility to highlights the severity of the climate crisis and educate people on how they can make a difference.