In September, Bremen participated in the annual Climate Strike. Thousands of people gathered to fight climate injustice, some of which were Jacobs University students who shared their experience at the event.
On September 25th, the annual Climate Strike gathered thousands of people around the world and Bremen was not an exception. The demonstration has a variety of names such as School Strike for Climate, Fridays for Future, and Youth for Climate. It was first created by Greta Thunberg, 15 years old at the time, who started protesting in front of the Swedish parliament every Friday with a sign ‘School strike for climate’. This soon became a sensation as lots of news outlets covered the story, which later created the Global Day of Climate Action on 25th September with the motto “System change, not climate change”. Many students attend the demonstration in their cities in support of better environmental policies and a fair discussion about our future.
In 2019, the demonstration gathered more than a million people around the world, however this year because of the pandemic, the numbers are expected to be lower. In Bremen, there were six different starting points where people could meet up and walk together. The main event was in a green area (Osterdeichwiesen) by the Weser river, where a total of 3,500 people gathered. Everybody was allowed to participate in the demonstration, but only if they were taking the necessary precautions. All participants were wearing face masks and kept a distance from others. The crowd was diverse; young and old were walking together towards a change for the better. Topics such as ‘be vegan’, ‘save the bees’ and anti-fascism statements were also noticeable on the posters that people brought from home. All participants were tacking the environmental issues from different sides, bringing more than one idea to the table, and asking the world leaders to take climate change as a crisis and not as a choice.
Melina Suelzle (Canada) | Foundation Year | 2020/2021
“I had lots of fun at the Climate Strike. The energy was good, and I was happy to see that there were lots of people attending the manifestation. I was also happy to see that everyone was wearing a mask, and there was at least some degree of social distancing taking place. I have attended some climate strikes in Canada (my home country), and one difference that I noticed, was the anticapitalistic rhetoric among the German youth. It pleases me to see that people here are addressing the route of the climate crisis, as well as the solutions.”
By Kremena Terzieva (Bulgaria) | Class of 2021
