Climate strike: Signs and scenes from protests in N.J. and across the globe – NJ.com

On Friday, people in more than 150 countries, including many young students, took up signs and took to the streets for the Global Climate Strike.

The strike is rooted in a campaign started by Swedish teen Greta Thunberg.

Thunberg, 16, started the Fridays for Future movement by protesting in front of the Swedish parliament in support of government action on climate change in 2018, striking every Friday.

On Sept. 20, protesters in Europe, the United States and events that dotted the planet called for authorities address global warming.

Here’s a look at some scenes from the climate strike in New Jersey, where high school students in towns including Maplewood and Montclair mobilized alongside their counterparts in Australia, India, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Afghanistan, South Africa, Kenya, Germany and Poland.

“Planet over profit!” chanted students from Columbia High School in Maplewood, walking down the street and holding up signs with messages including “I will not stay silent so you can stay comfortable.”

One young boy showed off a sign that said “no extinction like the dinos.”

“The planet, the planet, the planet is on fire!” protesters chanted outside the Maplewood municipal building.

“People over profit!” students chanted in Glen Ridge.

Other New Jerseyans traveled to the protest in New York.

In Ithaca, New York, a young girl held a sign that said “this planet is getting hotter than Shawn Mendes.”

The mission was in full effect in Washington, D.C., where protesters held one message seen at many protests: “There is no planet B.” Even kids in daycare got in on the movement.

Again proving protesters weren’t relegated to high schoolers, younger children marched in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. One sign: “The world is changing. Why aren’t we?”

Signs also included the Lizzo-inspired “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100% freaking terrified for our future.”

Here are more Global Climate Strike scenes from across the globe, including Germany, Scotland (“climate change has got to go, hey hey, ho ho”), England (“And no birds sing,” “I’ve seen smarter cabinets at Ikea,” “The oceans are rising, and so are we”), Australia, Thailand, Uganda and Belgium.

“Our government’s climate action is as poorly executed as this placard,” read one sign at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

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