UK: Young people, children rally against climate change

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) – Tens of thousands of young people and children took to the main squares and roads across Britain on Friday to protest government policies and urge action to tackle global climate change.

Protesters marched through London’s busiest roads and Parliament Square with signs and banners and shouted environmentalist slogans.

A big poster reading “Green New Deal” was carried by a group of hundreds of young people who briefly disrupted traffic on central Oxford Street.

Similar protests were also held in other major cities in the U.K., and in various other countries.

The protesters are demanding the government declare a state of “climate emergency” and reforms "to address climate change as an educational priority."

The rallies came after a recent UN report warned that limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, beyond which climate impacts become increasingly severe, requires unprecedented action, including cutting global carbon dioxide emissions by almost half within 12 years.

The UN outlined in its report this March that disastrous prospects are inevitable if countries fail to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming.

The growing number of natural disasters and dangers linked to climate change represents “another strong wake-up call” to the world, which must be countered by finding sustainable solutions quickly, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the launch of the report.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the start of 2019 has seen record warm winter temperatures in Europe, unusual cold in North America, and searing heat waves in Australia.

The extent of ice in the Arctic and Antarctica is yet again well below average, according to the WMO.

The organization also forecast above-average sea surface temperatures, which are expected to lead to above-normal land temperature, particularly in tropical latitudes, through May.