Young Lucknow joins global climate crusade

LUCKNOW: A 100-strong city crowd, comprising mostly schoolchildren, joined the worldwide protests against climate change on Friday.
Armed with posters that either screamed ‘Our house is on fire’ or pleaded ‘Make our climate great again, they assembled in Hazratganj around 5pm and marched half a kilometre from the SBI Bank to the multi-level parking.
Young people in more than 150 countries skipped school to join a series of global protests, urging world leaders to act more aggressively against climate change.The protests were organised under the aegis of FridaysForFuture, a people’s movement founded by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg last year. It now has chapters across the world.
“At 16, Greta has been named the most influential teenager for doing her bit for climate emergency. Inspired by her, I have started distributing cloth bags among people. FridaysForFuture is an international movement. Being here today made me feel I am part of something bigger,” said 11-year-old Ayesha, standing against the backdrop of a poster that read ‘Here for bees, trees, seas, nature and the future’.
Hriday Singh (19), another participant, said the global movement — also called SS4C or School Strike for Climate — was their fight against the inaction of governments worldwide. “It will probably be a long struggle, but it is for the future of our one and only planet,” he said.
Yashwant Singh Chauhan, the city coordinator of FridaysForFuture, said the issue was “climate crisis” because according to the Worldwide Air Pollution Index, Lucknow stood ninth in poor air quality. “It is an emergency. We don’t have much time. If we don’t act now, our planet will be gasping by 2031,” he added.