Climate Strikes across cities in the U.S. and around the world are happening this Black Friday to call attention to the global climate crisis according to reports.
The Huffington Post writes, Young activists and their supporters ― inspired by Swedish 16-year-old Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement, in which students skip class on Fridays for climate action ― came together for the global day of protest ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference that starts in Madrid, Spain, on Monday.
Thunberg, who is currently sailing across the Atlantic to attend the summit, sent her support on Twitter:
In September 7,5 million people around the world took to the streets. Tomorrow we’re doing it again. Everyone’s needed. Everyone’s welcome. Join us! #FridaysForFuture #ClimateStrike #schoolstrike4climate
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) November 28, 2019
Supporters hope it will be as successful as the Fridays for Future global climate strikes that took place in September.
“In September, 7.5 million people around the world took to the streets. Tomorrow we’re doing it again. Everyone’s needed. Everyone’s welcome,” Thunberg posted on social media.
Organizers have encouraged shoppers on Black Friday to boycott the holiday and focus on the degeneration of the planet by joining the climate strikes. One of the Facebook groups titled ‘Buy Nothing Day’ said it plans to silently push empty shopping carts through a New York city store, forming a lengthy chain of non-shoppers who will weave through the store aisles, inviting customers to take a break from shopping. Outside the shop they plan to engage in generosity-based outreach, handing out emission-free holiday gift coupons as an alternative to bought holiday gifts.
The groups organizing the strike include the Sunrise Foundation and Extinction Rebellion Youth, both groups recently staged sit-in protests in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) Washington, D.C., office to demand more be done on climate change.
“Consumerism is destroying our planet,” Extinction Rebellion, said on social media. “We do not have infinite resources, yet the system continues to persuade us all that we need to constantly buy more of everything. We are continuously sold cheap products at the expense of our environment, but enough is enough.”
“On a day typically reserved for deals and shopping, youth in America will boycott this trend and call for a change to business-as-usual to confront the climate crisis,” the groups said in a statement.
Another Climate Strike protest is planned for December 6th.