IT IS just over a year since Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, frustrated by political inaction on climate change and following Sweden鈥檚 hottest summer in more than 250 years, skipped school and sat in front of the Swedish parliament with a handwritten 鈥�Skolstrejk f枚r klimatet鈥� (School strike for the climate) sign.
Before long, teenagers in other countries were following her lead, building momentum towards the global Fridays for Future school strike movement. They have brought a new energy, bluntness and charisma to the climate debate 鈥� and shown spectacular skill at embarrassing politicians.
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On 20 September, they are asking adults all over the world to . Whether you are an employee, employer or neither, it鈥檚 worth asking what you can do to answer that call.
If nothing else, this is a chance to show a positive spirit of intergenerational cooperation on an issue that could be very generationally divisive 鈥� and in a world increasingly scarred by such conflict. Climate change is an issue for us all. We should send a clear signal that we know delegating it to the young to sort out will leave it too late.
Australia shows how support can be mobilised. It was one of the first places outside Sweden to spark a youth strike. By dint of their nation鈥檚 location on the globe, Australians will be some of the first to strike. There, the coalition of employers has pledged to support the strike, whether by closing company doors, having a meeting-free day, allowing a longer lunch break to attend protests or just making it clear that teams won鈥檛 be penalised for taking a few hours off.
In the UK, the Trades Union Congress has voted to support . As the strike begins across the Atlantic, more than at Amazon will also walk out, part of the long-standing Amazon Employees for Climate Justice campaign.
If you can鈥檛 leave work, there are still plenty of ways to aid the strikers. You could donate some of your wages to a climate campaign or write to schools, local papers and political representatives in support of the protests.
Above all, the young strikers want to see more people taking increasingly ambitious climate action. The most helpful thing any of us can do is look around, decide what needs to change and resolve to make that change happen.
That can鈥檛 end with a 30-minute microstrike on 20 September. Climate change isn鈥檛 something we simply win or lose, then the game ends. As climate scientist puts it, it鈥檚 more of a slope we slide down.
The sort of climate nihilism that the novelist Jonathan Franzen was 鈥� that we鈥檙e doomed, so there鈥檚 no point doing anything 鈥� is the last thing we need right now. As we cross the threshold of 1掳C of global warming, it鈥檚 still not too late. Concerted, sustained action on behalf of all those who care about the future of the planet is what is needed. 20 September is the perfect time to show that鈥檚 where you stand, too.
