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The global climate strike began this Friday with a difficult mark to overcome, that of the four million attendees who had those last Friday, September 20 worldwide. Convened in more than 170 countries by the Fridays for Future movement, promoted by the young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, in Spain it is being seconded in at least 100 municipalities. Young people and adults have denounced "political inaction in the face of the climate crisis", demanding a socio-economic model more committed to the environment. Their names are not known but together they form an unstoppable 'green' wave.

The demonstration has been convened in Spain by about 500 entities grouped into four platforms: Fridays For Future, Alliance for Climate, Alliance for Climate Emergency and 2020 Rebellion for Climate, in which the main environmental organizations are integrated, such as Friends of the Earth, Ecologists in Action, SEO / Birdlife, WWF, among others. In addition, political parties, unions and other organizations have joined.

In Andalusia, some 20,000 students of middle and university education have demonstrated during the morning, according to data from the Student Union of Andalusia, which has qualified the call of "tremendous success", since according to its secretary general, Ainoa Murcia, the follow-up It has been 85 percent on average in secondary, high school and FP centers. Regarding the participation of Primary teachers, the Ministry of Education and Sports has targeted 40 percent of teachers in Primary and 21 percent in Secondary.

In Valencia, students have taken to the streets with slogans such as "Time is running out" or "point of no return, irreversible." During the morning march they also carried banners such as ' The asphalt is not eaten ', 'It is not drought, it is looting'.

In the Balearic Islands, about 4,500 people demonstrated on Friday in Palma de Mallorca, according to data from the Government Delegation. In the act participated the Minister of Environment and Territory of the Balearic Government, Miquel Mir, who has claimed greater involvement with the State and the European Union in this regard and, in particular in the conservation of the waters of Balares, where in the For the last 15 years the regional authorities have recovered 700 tons of plastic.

Meanwhile, in the Canary archipelago, at least 1,500 people have marched this Friday morning, according to calculations by the Local Police, although as in many other Spanish cities, the demonstration has been repeated in the afternoon.

On the other hand, in Catalonia the follow-up of the strike was 33 percent (32.89%), according to data from the Autonomous Government that increases participation to 80.94 percent in the case of Tierras del Ebro students, and 70.9 percent in the Vallés Occidental, while it has stood at 49.78 percent in Bajo Llobregat; 48.12 percent in Central Catalonia and 43.53 percent in Lleida.

Meanwhile, in Castilla-La Mancha, the strike has been seconded by 34.85 percent of the students, according to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. Of these, 2.26 percent in private education, 230 students, and 22,222 students of the Public. "The struggle that we are leading the youth is a great step forward and we will continue to be on the streets," the secretary general of the Student Union, Coral Latorre, told Europa Press.

In Bilbao, another 2,000 students have mobilized on Friday through the streets of Bilbao in response to the call made by the Fridays for Future student movement to carry out the World Climate Strike. A hundred students have also been concentrated in Oviedo and about 250 in Valladolid.

Seven days of weather actions

This student and consumer strike puts the finishing touch on more than 5,000 events, held in 156 countries, which began on September 20. The mobilizations have coincided, deliberately, with the celebration in New York of the Climate Summit convened by the UN to ask countries to increase their commitments to reduce CO2 emissions linked to rising temperatures.

From Rebellion for the Climate they indicate that this will not be the last activity in which they participate. "We will continue to carry out actions until next year. In total there will be three waves, this has been the first, focused on political incidence, in January the second and third will take place, it will be before summer," he explained to EL WORLD Rosa Fraga, spokesperson for 2020 Rebellion for Climate, one of the convening platforms.

The objective is common, to immediately declare the state of climatic emergency and thus reduce to zero the greenhouse gas emissions, as stated in a manifesto promoted by the convening platforms (Youth for Climate, Alliance for Climate Emergency , 2020 Rebellion for the Climate and Alliance for the Climate).

The document, supported in Spain by organizations such as Ecologists in Action, Friends of the Earth, WWF, Greenpeace and SEO / BirdLife, states that the objectives of reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) are not being met in much of the world. In fact, the planet increased production of these gases between 2017 and 2018 by 2.7%.

Referring to the sixth extinction, the statement says that " close to one million species between animals and plants are about to disappear as a result of human activities." In addition, it points directly to the "model of extractive production and globalized consumption as guilty of the current climate crisis, which especially impacts the most impoverished and vulnerable populations in the world."

Responsible consumption

"In the manifesto, we have reached an agreement to denounce that we must focus on the responsibilities of the companies that pollute the most. This burden cannot be transferred entirely to the public. Awareness and responsible consumption is important but there is no to forget that there are 100 companies in the world that contribute to Global Warming and ten are in Spain, all energetic, "said the 2020 spokeswoman Rebellion Against Climate.

On the other hand, Félix Muñoz, one of the administrators of Fridays for Future in Valladolid, believes that there are two simultaneous paths, that of the citizen who changes his model of consumption and that of the responsibility of the most polluting companies.

This student from Valladolid, combines second year of high school with student demands and interventions in regional television in Castilla y León. As founder of a movement node in his hometown, he has confessed that it all began with the visualization of a video of Greta Thunberg. He stressed that the young woman "is a role model among the administrators of the movement. When a student sees another call a demonstration, he feels identified and joins the action."

Muñoz has said he is frustrated by the misinformation and the negative movement against climate change. "Denying that the causes are anthropogenic is a lack of culture. I compare them with other scientific movements such as the terraplanistas," he said flatly. "This movement is a demonstration that we are not a static generation. We have taken the streets and have a lot of energy to fight for our future and that of future generations," he insisted. The new generations come stomping.

Greta, the spark that ignited the protests

According to the spokeswoman for Rebellion for the weather, the spark that has ignited the massive participation in different countries has been Greta Thunberg, although it highlights that in Spain there was already Youth for Climate linked to the university although, obviously, it was not such a group numerous as it is today. He also mentions one of the groups that is giving more talk, Extinction Rebellion. Emerged in the United Kingdom at the end of 2018, the curriculum includes actions such as the occupation and blocking of five key London sites that resulted in more than 1,000 detained protesters and mobilizations in Spain and France in front of the offices of several oil companies.

" While we focus on the political landscape with the 'comings and goings' of the parties, our planet suffers the consequences, " said Borja Sacristán, a student of Art History at the Autonomous University of Madrid. "We must maintain measures that have worked as Central Madrid and attend mobilizations like this to avoid a post-apocalyptic future to Mad Max . If our predecessors have decided to look the other way, we do not," claims the historian while waving a banner in the that you can read Make earth great again (a return to the motto of Donald Trump that could be translated as 'Make the Earth great again').

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