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“We have to treat the climate crisis as a crisis, it’s that simple,” said Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who started the protests in 2018, in Stockholm. Also in Austria it was mainly young people who took to the streets.
Several thousand people took to the streets of Vienna. On three different demo routes, participants moved to Schwarzenbergplatz in persistent light rain, where, according to organizer Fridays for Future Vienna, 6,000 participants finally made it to the final rally. The police counted 2,500 people. The government has been asked to take the climate crisis as seriously as the crisis in the crown.
“It is no longer twelve to five, it is twelve,” boomed from the loudspeakers at 12 noon at the beginning of the demonstration under the slogan “Fight against all crises” in Vienna’s central station. It was time to act and get back on the streets, said Fridays for Future activist Emilia Tscherne: “Politicians have not yet acted as we want. Despite the corona pandemic, we must not forget that the climate crisis is stronger. than ever … “It requires rapid replacement of gas heating systems, stopping” large-scale fossil fuel projects “such as the construction of the Lobau tunnel and a car-free city.
A manageable crowd continued to hear the first speeches of the day from Railroad Workers Union Life and Greenpeace. According to the organizers, shortly before 1 p.m. there were between 400 and 500 participants in each of the three starting points that braved the rain, including organizations such as Global 2000, WWF, Amnesty International and the two small parties, Links and SÖZ, who are running in the upcoming Vienna elections. .
The protesters were armed with signs with slogans such as “There are no dreams without trees”, “You cannot surf heat waves” or “Put climate protection in motion”. They chanted “When the glaciers melt, rebuild the economy” and “This is our response to your policy, strike at the school and at the factory.”
The demonstration participants, mostly young, had to adhere to the hygiene measures of the crown. Numerous stewards repeatedly drew attention to the “mouth-to-nose weather protection” that must be worn and the applicable 1.5 meter distance rules. Although almost all the participants covered their mouth and nose, the distance could not always be perfectly maintained.
The demonstration participants cut the path to Schwarzenbergplatz singing and dancing. Once there, they expected more speeches and lots of music (live) before the rally ended around 5 pm Fridays for Future activist Veronika Winter was delighted with the process and the size of the rally: “We I am pleased that so many have come despite the Crown and the rain and have set the example that the climate crisis should be treated like them. ” Crown crisis. “The participants would have been very disciplined, Winter said. There were no undesirable incidents.
In addition to Vienna, demonstrations were also recorded in Innsbruck, Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Klagenfurt, Wiener Neustadt, Waidhofen / Ybbs and Schrems. Here too the protest was peaceful.
Greta Thunberg, meanwhile, demonstrated together with a dozen fellow campaigners in front of the Swedish parliament in Stockholm. The goal is “to increase the pressure on those in power so that things change,” the activist told reporters. The 17-year-old wore mouth and nose protection due to the corona pandemic. From Iceland to Australia, more than 3,000 actions were planned around the world on Friday.
On the occasion of the day of action, Greenpeace posted a photo of 18-year-old ornithologist Mya-Rose Craig on an ice floe in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Craig, known as the “Bird Girl”, holds a sign that reads “Youth Strike for Climate” in her hand. “I’m here because I want to see with my own eyes what is at stake,” Craig said, according to the statement. The climate-critical Arctic Ocean is melting “at an alarming rate.”
Thunberg resumed his strikes on Friday on September 4, after returning to his school in Sweden after a year of fighting climate change around the world. During his break, Thunberg traveled the world. So he crossed the Atlantic twice on a sailboat, referring to the high carbon dioxide emissions from air travel.
During the United Nations general debate in New York in September last year, Thunberg delivered an irate speech against leaders gathered over the massive failures in protecting the earth’s climate. After returning across the ocean on a sailboat, Thunberg participated in the UN climate conference in Madrid in December.
Due to the corona pandemic, Fridays for Future had largely confined itself to virtual protests in recent months to demand significantly more ambitious climate protection measures from politics and business.
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