As Students Skip School Around the World, a Generation Finds Its Voice on Climate Change

In 2040 Haven Coleman will be 33 years old.  Having grown up in Colorado, she may have left the state to attend college or start her career, but wherever she goes will be a stunningly different world from the one she inhabits today.

The planet will have already warmed past one scary threshold — 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial averages — and will be fast approaching the even more frightening mark of 2 degrees Celsius, long considered a catastrophic marker by the global community.  Even at 1.5 degrees, there will likely be tens of millions of climate refugees from regions that have become uninhabitable because of heat, flooding, or extreme weather.  Fragile coral reefs may be nearly decimated, and recurrent flooding, excessive heat, and a constant risk of wildfires will pose an everyday threat to stability in some of the world’s biggest cities.

Not quite 13 years old, Coleman is painfully aware of what awaits her generation should there be continued government and social inaction in addressing the perils of a warming planet.  “I’ve grown up with climate change,” Coleman told me.  “I’ve grown up listening and hearing about climate change.  I’m fighting for my future.”

She is one of the school-age protesters skipping classes today to join protests in more than 1,600 school strikes across 100 countries.  Students are joining in, inspired by the example of 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenager who has been striking most Fridays since 2018 to demand political leaders’ attention.  The hashtag #FridaysForFuture has caught on in other countries, like Australia, where 200 young people demonstrated in November.

In the United States, the movement, which is made up of mostly teenage girls, has expanded from a few lone protesters missing school on some Fridays to a nationwide, all-day Youth Climate Strike.  Coleman teamed up with 16-year-old Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Minnesota Rep. Imar Oman, and 13-year-old Alexandria Villasenor of New York City.  Their demands are for the United States to embrace the principles underlying the Green New Deal, provide better education on climate change, and connect all government decisions to scientific research.

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