Celebrating 50 Years of Student Environmental Activism

November 4^th – People and Planet’s Carnival of Climate Chaos in London

People and Planet, the UK’s largest student network in the UK campaigning for social and environmental justice, created a Carnival of Climate Chaos, which saw over 22,000 students gathered in London to demand action on Climate Change.

This later resulted in the UK Government committing to introducing a Climate Change Bill at the state opening of Parliament.

April 14^th – Step it Up rallies throughout the US 

Step It Up was a campaign from founder and scholar Bill McKibben and six recent graduates of Middlebury College in Vermont. Their aim was to get Congress to ‘step up’ and reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

Using email and a basic website, McKibben and the graduates appealed to US citizens to help and received a notable response. Together they managed to organize more than 1,400 coordinated demonstrations over the 50 states.

September 21^st – People’s Climate March in New York City

Many students joined the 311,000 people who participated in a large-scale climate march in New York City on September 21^st. The event was organized by the People’s Climate Movement to encourage global action against climate change. 

June 26^th – Time is Now march in London

Students were amongst the 12,000 people who campaigned outside UK Parliament on behalf of the Climate Coalition, to demand that urgent action is taken against climate change.

July 21^st – The Youth Climate March in Washington DC

Zero Hour, an environmental youth group, organized three days of climate activism to call on the US government to act on climate change.

Events included lobbying, a Youth Climate Art Festival and a protest of hundreds of students and other young people in the national mall in Washington DC.

August 20^th – Greta Thunberg’s first climate strike

In August, Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, then 15, held a climate strike at her school. The strike was joined by more than 20,000 students worldwide and was the start of her global campaign to reduce carbon emissions.

September to November – Fridays For Future campaign

In September, Greta Thunberg invited students to stage school walkouts every Friday to protest climate issues.

By November, more than 17,000 students in 24 countries joined Thunberg in the weekly Friday school strikes. Thunberg started speaking at high profile events across Europe, including Poland’s United Nations climate talks.

February 15th – Worldwide climate change protests

Students around the world left school and university for the day to protest for global action on climate change. Inspired by Thunberg, the protests took place across more than 30 countries, from Sweden to Brazil, India and the United States.

August 5^th – Climate activist summit in Switzerland

450 young ‘Fridays for Future’ climate activists from 37 European countries attended a summit in Lausanne, Switzerland to work on international cooperation and discuss the movement's development. 

September 20^th to 27^th – Climate strikes around the world

7.6 million people took part in week-long international strikes and protests around the world. These people included students, trade unions, businesses, health workers, scientists and many more, all calling for climate action. Between them, they organized 6,100 events across 185 countries.

November 23^rd - Harvard Yale Football Protest

In November, 300 students from Harvard University and Yale University stormed the football pitch at halftime during the annual game between the two schools. The disruption delayed the match by nearly 30 minutes. 

The protesters wanted both universities to stop investing in oil, gas and coal companies which contribute to climate change.