Protest sign; painting on cardboard of the statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson from Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square wearing a gas mask and with a pigeon on its shoulder trapped in a plastic six-pack ring. The sign was used at the youth strike against climate change in London on Friday 15 March 2019.

On Friday 15 March 2019 an estimated 10,000 young people attended the youth strike against climate change in London. This was just one of 2000 protests that took place that day in over 100 countries worldwide, under the banner Fridays for Future. Young people of all ages, some accompanied by parents and teachers, others attending alone or with groups of friends, walked out of school, college and university in order to express their anger that their concerns about climate change – which they know will profoundly affect their futures – are not taken seriously by governments, industry and the older generation more generally.

The school strike movement began in summer 2018 in Sweden, when 16-year-old Greta Thunberg began missing school on Fridays to campaign outside the Swedish parliament. At first she was a lone protester, but her actions helped to inspire a global movement. Prior to the global youth strike on 15 March 2019, protests had already taken place across the world, with a school strike in the UK on the previous month on 15 February.