Tens of thousands of students yesterday gathered for marches across New Zealand to begin a planned second global school strike for climate action.
The latest round of protests, which builds on last week’s marches by millions of children worldwide, is planned to roll through Asia and Europe before culminating in a rally in Montreal, where teenage activist Greta Thunberg is scheduled to speak.
Thunberg, who is credited with inspiring the school strikes, earlier this week lambasted world leaders for a lack of climate change policies at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York.
Photo: AFP
In New Zealand, scores of protests were held in towns and cities across the country, with students carrying signs including: “We’re skipping our lessons, so we can teach you one” and “You can’t comb over climate change.”
Organizer School Strike for Climate NZ said on Twitter that it had received credible reports that 170,000 people were striking nationwide, a figure that would represent 3.5 percent of the country’s population.
Local media put the crowd in the capital, Wellington, where students were delivering a petition to parliament calling on the government to declare a climate emergency, at about 40,000.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who is in New York at the climate summit, on Thursday announced that she had support from four other countries for a proposed new trade agreement to combat climate change.
Negotiations would begin with Norway, Iceland, Costa Rica and Fiji early next year, Ardern said, adding that she hoped other nations would join.
New Zealand protesters were again ready to counter arguments that they should be in school, instead of out on the streets protesting.
“My education doesn’t matter if I have no future or if I have no land,” Elizabeth Glassie, a protester in Auckland, told Radio New Zealand.
About 500 students in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, urged more government action to address climate change, marching toward the presidential Blue House after a downtown rally, where they said that the government gets an “F” in climate action.
“I believe government action will change only if the voice of young people is heard, because we’re the ones ... who are going to be the greatest victims of a climate crisis,” said 15-year-old Kim Do-hyeon, one of the organizers of that rally.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from