It’s Friday, March 13, and the global climate strikes are going digital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As more cities and countries ban large events and public gatherings in an effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, youth climate activists are still moving forward with their weekly strikes for the planet. The only difference? They’re happening online.
Greta Thunberg, who started the Fridays for Future movement as a solitary striker in front of Sweden’s parliament in 2018, reassured climate activists that the fight for aggressive climate policies is still on. On Wednesday, she told her Twitter followers to “do as the experts say” by avoiding large crowds to avoid spreading the virus. In place of in-person protest, she encouraged activists to “post a photo of you striking with a sign and use the hashtag #ClimateStrikeOnline.”
This morning, Twitter users using the hashtags #ClimateStrikeOnline or #DigitalStrike did just that — posting pictures of themselves holding homemade signs with slogans like “There Is No Planet B” and “Stop Fossil Fools.” Thunberg posted a picture of herself flanked by her two dogs and holding her famous “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (“School strike for climate”) sign.
“We listen to the science, and right now the science says that mass gatherings will cause harm. But that won’t stop us from striking,” Fridays For Future said in a statement. “The climate emergency is the biggest crisis we have ever faced, it won’t wait until after COVID-19 is dealt with — so we can’t either.”
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