"School strike for climate". Photo: Finn Ethan Killing
Twenty-five thousand people lined the street connecting Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to its Victory column on Friday to show their concern for the environment and demand change, but they were also there to see the 16 year-old activists whose name they were chanting: “Greta.”
Sweden’s 16 year-old activist, Greta Thunberg, contorted her eyebrows in uneasiness while she waited for the crowd to quiet down to deliver the type of sober mix of criticism and encouragement that helped start the movement, ‘Fridays for Future’, which now has hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers cutting school to teach politicians a lesson.
“The older generation have failed at tackling the largest crisis facing the world,” Thunberg says with a solemn conviction. “They just pat us on our heads and say we shouldn’t worry. We should panic, but that doesn’t mean running around and screaming. It means we should step out of our comfort zone. When you are in a crisis you change your behaviour.”
Thunberg who was diagnosed with Asperger’s, a developmental disorder that affects social interaction, comes off as earnest and pragmatic. These qualities are not usually associated with teenagers, but they make it near impossible to dismiss the activist despite the facts that she is shy of five foot and is too young to vote or run for office. Although she readily agrees with anyone who says she isn’t old enough to be protesting serious issues, there are more than 26,000 scientists attached to her movement who will back up the points she is making. Although the Fridays for Future movement has created school strikes in more than 144 countries, the grass roots focus on local politics makes it a powerful agent for change.
“Sixty-five is the average age of the members on the [German] coal commission,” Jakob Blasel, 18, a German Fridays for Future organiser tells the crowd, while standing alongside his Swedish, Danish, French and Polish counterparts in Berlin. “By the time I am 65 it will have been too late.”
Left: " Right: "We aren't cutting class, we are fighting" "Climate change is not going to wait for us to graduate" Photography by Finn Ethan Killing @frenchfuckery
One of the main points of the environmentalist movement is that the young generation should have a larger say in climate politics, because the grey-haired parliamentarians voting on policy will not have to live with the consequences. Another is a call for radical action in response to the alarming consequences of climate change, which is the basis for cutting class to protest.
“I have to laugh when people tell me to go to school instead of striking,” Blasel says. “People who are creating the problem talk about truancy and not the climate.”
German chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken out in support of the movement, but the leader – whose legacy is largely defined by her controversial energy transition from fossil fuel and nuclear energy to wind and solar power – is not doing enough according to the demonstrators. They demand that Germany shuts down coal power plants, crack down on the automotive industry and keep its commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement.
While the Fridays for Future march speaks about many of the grim realities that face the globe in terms of coastal flooding, climate refugees and resource scarcity, it makes sure to celebrate the community that comes together to help change things. And since this demonstration was in Berlin, it goes without saying that there was dancing and techno.
Among the protest posters made out of old cardboard and used cereal boxes telling the crowd that there was no “Planet B,” others brought up rising temperatures with signs reading, “This is getting hotter than Kim Namjoon.” Another version of the sign replaced the K-pop star’s name with Leonardo Dicaprio (further advocating sustainability as DiCaprio has now spent close to 30 years setting the bar for teen crushes).
Other signs read, “Make the world Greta again.” These are the ones that stand out as inaccurate, because the mobilisation, organisation and digital age proliferation of the Greta effect feel new, and not like something to return to. Still, the idea of a world that cares about the environment the way Thunberg does seems like a good goal.
Check out more photos from Berlin’s Fridays for Future demo:
Photography by Finn Ethan Killing.