Nearly 500,000 people marched Friday in Montreal with Swedish activist Greta Thunberg as part of a new "global climate strike", announced the organizers of the event. "This is the biggest event in Quebec's history," François Geoffroy, a crowd member from the "La Planète" group, told Parliament, "The police have not given an official figure.
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"We are at least 500,000," said the young Swede. "You can be proud of yourself!" she told the crowds gathered near the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) after the march. "There is urgency and we will not sit idly by," said the young woman before proclaiming, "We are change and change is coming." "This week, leaders from around the world gathered in New York, once again disappointed us with their empty words and inadequate plans," she lamented, referring to the UN summit on climate at the beginning of the week in New York.
More than six million protesters in the world?
She reiterated that it was a "moral duty" to "continue to fight for the planet and for our future" in order to be able "when we are older to look our children in the eye and tell them that we have done everything we can. " Greta Thunberg also estimated that "several million" people demonstrated around the world on Friday. "We will continue to do it until they listen to us," she warned under the ovations.
Greta Thunberg estimated that the mobilization of last Friday, during the previous "climate strike", had brought together "more than 6.6 million people" in the world, according to the latest figures available. Organizers have spoken so far of more than four million people for this "Friday for future".