The school climate strike was a new generation's activism – and I'm so proud

The kids couldn’t believe it. The adults couldn’t believe it. 

School kids in their thousands to the street to send a
message about the need for immediate action on climate change.

Martin Place hadn’t seen anything like it for years, and Elly and her sister had never seen anything like it – ever.

Elly, 14, and Aidan, 10, had come thinking the strike would be “a small thing”. Elly said she didn’t know many people from her school who were coming. She found a thousand others.

On Friday, in a crowded Martin Place, the chants went up and I’ve never felt prouder.

This week thousands of students in every state walked out of school to protest inaction over climate change and the sense that their future is being frittered away.

They had the signs, the statistics, the anger – and the solutions too. I looked around and felt I had seen the future, clever and full of passion.

Read The Guardian story by Namaan Zhou - “The school climate strike was a new generation's activism – and I'm so proud.”