Global Climate Strike: "It's a wonderful thing to see a new generation rise up"

Young people took to the streets of Derry over the weekend to demand action against climate change.
Hundreds of Derry students left school on Friday as part of a global climate strike to sound the alarm about what is widely viewed as an “environmental emergency”.
And again on Saturday, young people were at the centre of the Our Earth Our Future March, Rally and Gathering which retraced the original civil rights route from the Waterside to the Guildhall.
At Friday’s climate strike, one organiser, Rois Hutton, told the crowd they must target political parties and people with influence to insist upon "radical quick changes" so that "we can ensure the survival of the human race.”
Another of those behind the strike action, Emma Farren, said that this strike differed from those held on previous occasions because adults had taken a stand alongside the youth of the city.
She urged those in attendance to continue to stand with them to bring about meaningful change.
Their actions prompted veteran civil rights activist, Eamonn McCann, to declare on Saturday that in all his years of campaigning he has never been more "hopeful".
"What made me hopeful is the composition of the marches. The median age is under 20. It's a wonderful thing to see a new generation rise up and the first in my lifetime that 50% of marchers were women.
"I would put all my trust in the young women of Ireland to make a difference. I don't mean to be patronising but they are leaders of the future.
"Campaigns can rise and fall when the excitement passes but it is of the utmost importance that we stay on the same track because together we will save the climate, and world, for another generation."
On Friday school pupils throughout the North of Ireland joined with millions of people around the world in staging protests.
Some primary school classes, accompanied by their teachers, could be seen making their way to the city centre with placards carrying environmental messages.
The iconic Free Derry Wall bore a stark message throughout the week. It read: “YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EXTINCTION?”, and encouraged people to join the environmental movement.

"The land, the sea, the air that we breathe, that's more precious than gold."

By Saturday that message had been defaced by someone who scrawled "globalist agenda" underneath.
The catalyst for the environmental movement is fifteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg. Last year she protested for more than a month prior to Sweden's parliamentary elections by sitting alone on the steps of the parliament building in Stockholm.
Following the elections she spent Fridays there demanding the government undertake a radical response to climate change.
She has since inspired a mass movement supported by people, young and old, around the world.
On Saturday Derry people continued to champion her cause by carrying placards reading, 'The Sea is Rising and so are We' and 'We Need to Change the Politics not the Climate'.
Linda O' Sullivan of Friends of the Earth told an audience gathered in the Guildhall that we are facing an "existential crisis" and people "need to be held accountable".
And Paddy Nash, musician and environmentalist, sang a song inspired by the Save Our Sperrins campaign against gold mining. Amongst its lyrics: "What's more precious than gold?
"The land, the sea, the air that we breathe, that's more precious than gold."