Forty years ago, I occasionally succeeded in skipping school for climate-related reasons – namely because my village was under deep snow and the school bus couldn’t get through. But too often the snowploughs proved surprisingly effective. It never occurred to me, though, to skip school on a point of principle. That is, however, what pupils are threatening to do – or are being implored to do – on Friday. A “Youth for Climate” movement circulating on Twitter has declared a ‘strike’ for the day – the idea being that children will walk out of lessons in order to protest at the lack of progress on tackling climate change. It seems to have an international edge, being inspired by pig-tailed 16-year-old Greta Thunberg – the Sound of Music extra who made a speech at Davos last month.
But then it also seems to have a remarkable number of adult activists behind it, not least from Extinction Rebellion, which has been tweeting its support over the past few days, between sharing articles demanding that oil company bosses be tried for “crimes against humanity”.
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