They can't take to the streets, school hardly ever takes place anyway - nevertheless, the activists of Fridays for Future want to draw attention to climate change. They also get creative in Germany for this.
Berlin (dpa) - It should be the "biggest online protest ever": The climate movement Fridays for Future wants to demonstrate in the middle of the corona crisis in many countries for more climate protection.
Because of the worldwide pandemic, the actions take place mainly on the Internet. "Fight every crisis", many young people wrote on signs in the past few days - fight every crisis.
German activist Luisa Neubauer announced the "biggest online protest ever" on Twitter. It would "show how great the social backing is behind just climate protection."
Among other things, there should be a 24-hour live stream on YouTube from the early morning hours, in which climate activists and researchers from all over the world should have their say. As in previous weeks, Swedes Greta Thunberg and her fellow campaigners want to post photos of themselves and their protest signs on social networks to encourage governments around the world to do more to protect the climate.
Fridays for Future actually wanted to hold a major global climate protest on Friday, as it has done several times in 2019. Several hundred thousand people in Germany alone took part in such protest days last year. Because of the ongoing Corona crisis and the associated ban and restrictions on meetings, however, large demos are not possible on the streets, which is why the movement is now moving onto the Internet.
However, the network will not be the only scene of the protests: among other things, the climate movement wants to put together posters and signs for dozens of local groups in front of the Bundestag in Berlin (from 10.30 a.m.) for an art event. Only 20 people can actively accompany the campaign on site. Similar actions are planned in other cities. "It feels like it started at Fridays for Future. We now have to come up with new forms of protest," said the co-founder of the movement in Germany, Carla Reemtsma, the German Press Agency.
The fight against the corona crisis has recently overshadowed climate protection. Environmental associations, but also many companies, are calling for economic stimulus programs to be used to make them more climate-friendly and less dependent on coal, oil and gas. Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) even believes that the debate is now getting a "new boost", as it told the editorial network Germany (Friday). The corona crisis has promoted "an understanding of all of us networking", she is confident that this knowledge will also prevail in climate protection.
Greens boss Robert Habeck told the dpa that it was good that Fridays for Future and the environmental movement "put climate protection" back on the agenda. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) followed the recommendations of science in the corona crisis. "We also expect climate protection to follow the compass of science."
Live stream from Fridays for Future
Tweet Luisa Neubauer
