“FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE”
“Thanks, Greta, for waking us up”. “I believe this is the largest strike in human history”. “10,000 of us are on strike in Helsinki”. “Greta, you are amazing!”. “Don’t give up!”. “You are right, Greta”. “History is made today”. Then an endless series of “hi”: from Portugal, Mallorca, South Africa, the Canary Islands, Sydney, Canada, Frankfurt, Bonn, Berlin, Barcelona, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Seattle, Belgium, Kenya, Oregon, Hamburg, Bologna, Rome, Ferrara. These are just a few comments and messages in preparation for the live streaming on Facebook, as participants wait for Greta Thunberg to speak in Mynttorget Square, Stockholm. “Thank you guys around the world”. “God bless you”. “A new global brotherhood is born through young people”. “A young girl has to do what politicians have failed to do in thirty years”: a message reads, perhaps written by adults. A young 15-year-old Swedish girl has managed to mobilise the world. Social media are flooded with pictures of young people marching for the climate today. It is raining in Stockholm. Greta, in her yellow raincoat, appears on stage at noon, shyly waving her hand. She has spent the past thirty Fridays on strike outside the Swedish parliament with her banner. Hundreds of young people are on the square with her today. She speaks just a few words, in Swedish, with a firm voice. Then another girl on the stage calls for “a minute of silence for those who have lost their lives due to the climate crisis”. Then Greta leaves.
