Londoners brought their signs and chants to City Hall this afternoon in a strike against climate change.
Demonstrators including students of all ages came out during school hours to support the climate strike. The crowd was met with support from honking cars passing by the busy intersection of Dufferin and Wellington.
Demonstrators are now beginning to organize for today’s Climate Change Strike at London’s City Hall #ldnont #climatechange pic.twitter.com/SlvyQ4ff4g
— XFM News (@XFMNews) January 11, 2019
The climate strike event was inspired by 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was made famous for organizing student strikes against climate change. Thunberg was then featured as a speaker at the United Nation’s COP24 Climate Change Conference. The London climate strike was hosted by the London chapter of Climate Save, Reimagine Co, as well as Extinction Rebellion Ontario.
The Save Movement is a global organization of different activism groups that seeks to raise awareness to the effects of animal agriculture and includes a Climate Save Movement here in London.
“The earth will not be around”
Margaret Kendall is the President of the London chapter of Climate Save and she says that saving the planet should be a top priority instead of corporate profits. Kendall says we won’t be able to address any other world issue if we don’t first address climate change as she reasons, “we won’t have jobs [and] we won’t have a planet to make money on if there is no planet and we all die – [it’s] plain and simple.”
Amanda Barker also helped organize the event and she says that non-believers of climate change are a result of corporate interests.
“We can understand why people won’t be able to support it or get on board because it’s a threat to corporate profit. […] When you’re in that system and in that status quo, climate change–if we take it seriously–is going to mean a shift in the status quo and business as usual.”
Almost a hundred Londoners marched around Victoria Park to rally against climate change
Barker says that a plant-based lifestyle is one of the biggest ways that people can contribute towards preventing climate change.
“We need to shift towards plant based [lifestyles] not only in our own lives but we have to talk to our community centres or our universities to have everything be plant based. The only way to take away some of the power is to have our own community strength so corporations and governments won’t have so much control over us.”
The direct effects of climate change hit close to home with a recent study linking climate change as a driving force behind the B.C. wildfires of 2017.
’12 years to divert climate change’
Climate leaders don’t just talk.
They act.
Join us!!
Global climate strike 14 December.
Spread the word!! #FridaysForFuture #ClimateStrike #ClimateChallenge #ClimateLeader #cop24 #schoolstrike4climate pic.twitter.com/f5A2WogQxr— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 12, 2018
According to the world’s leading climate scientists, humans only have 12 years to address and divert the effects of climate change. In a Twitter video posted by Greta Thunberg she says, “science has clearly told us that we need to act now to keep the planet within 1.5 degrees of warming.” The world is currently 1-degree Celsius hotter than pre-industrial temperatures and researchers warn that if temperatures rise above the maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius, then there will be a risk for extreme drought, floods, and heat.
