Climate strike: hundreds of young people take to the streets in Cardiff protest

29th November 2019

Young people from across Cardiff take part a strike to demand urgent action from world leaders on climate change.

The protest is part of one of the largest climate demonstrations in history and those taking part in Cardiff are amongst the millions of people protesting today across the world.

The protesters want adults, politicians and big companies to do more to tackle climate change and to put an end to fossil fuels.

The young people chanted loudly: “What do we want? Climate justice. When do we want it? Now," grabbing the attention of the public causing traffic to stop.

For the Cardiff protesters this, will be their second protest following their first one back in September 2019.

Young people carried handmade signs on the protest

With the upcoming general elections taking place on Thursday 12th December 2019 most of the young people on the protest were under 18 and unable to vote in the forthcoming elections.

Those young people who can’t vote asked adults in the UK to stand with them and vote in the their best interest.

The day of action started at Cardiff City Hall at 10 a.m then marched through the city and finishing at the Senedd at 1.30 p.m

Protesters were chanting, turning heads and grabbing the attention of those around the city centre.

The Welsh government has declared a climate emergency and they have committed to achieving a carbon neutral public sector by 2030 . They hope to cut carbon emissions, improve active travel, reducing single use plastics, developing an electric vehicle charging strategy, supporting businesses to reuse existing materials and minimise waste and improve biodiversity.

Protesters are demanding that the government make it clear to the public how important and urgent climate crisis is.

Protestors took to Cardiff’s Christmas market

How is climate being affected?

The Met Office has said humans are increasingly influencing the Climate and the earth's temperature by burning fossil fuels, cutting down rain forests and farming livestock.

These factors add enormous amounts of greenhouse gases occurring in the atmosphere leading to an increase in the greenhouse effect and global warming.

There is no longer any debate that without urgent action to tackle the issue of carbon emissions we will be in serious trouble in decades to come.

For some of the members involved in yesterday’s strike, it was their first protest and many students had taken the day off school and university to take part in the protest.

Many protesters took the day off school to attend the protest

Lucy, 17 from Cardiff said: ‘’Why should we go to school if there's going to be nothing there afterwards?

"We need everyone; young and old, to take action immediately to help us tackle climate change otherwise there’s going to be a devastating impact on generations to come.

I think it’s important that young people like myself do strike and take a day off school to show how serious we are about making a change otherwise we won’t be seen or heard and no changes will happen.”

Many of the young protesters are inspired by seventeen- year - old environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

Peter , 15 from Cardiff said: "Greta’s activism is really inspiring to myself and my friends. Seeing her face important world leaders and being young is very inspiring and I really hope that I can make a change to the environment like she has one day.”

Who is Greta Thunberg?

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish environmental activist who is internationally known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action against climate change.

She was eight when she started learning about climate change and the more she was taught she became baffled as to why so little was being done about it.

On August 20th 2018 Greta conducted her first school strike ‘School Strike for Climate’.

She did not go to school that day, and instead sat down outside the Swedish Parliament.

Greta’s campaigning has gained international recognition and demanded urgent action against climate change.

She has an impressive 10.6 million Instagram followers and 4.6 million on Twitter where she receives a lot of recognition from the world.

Greta is known for her blunt, straightforward speaking manner, both in public and to political leaders.

One of Greta’s famous quotes that inspires millions of young people across the world is: “For way too long, the politicians and the people in power have gotten away with not doing anything to fight the climate crisis, but we will make sure that they will not get away with it any longer. We are striking because we have done our homework and they have not.”

What can we do to tackle climate change?

We can all contribute to making a change in the world, here are some expert's advice to help change the future.

Take action in your community
Cut down on meat and dairy consumption
Reduce travel
Switch to a green energy provider.