Huntingdon students strike to demand climate action

School pupils in Huntingdon took part in a co-ordinated global rally on Friday that called on governments to take bolder steps to tackle climate change.

Children from Hinchingbrooke School left their classrooms for an afternoon of demonstrations in their efforts to speak out against climate change.

The demonstration in Huntingdon coincided with similar events featuring youngsters across the world, who all put down their books to march for change in the first global climate strike.

Children marched outside Hinchingbrooke School as well as in Huntingdon High Street to highlight issues they want to see changed.

Rose Coggins, aged 13, led the demonstration in Huntingdon, which finished in the Market Square.

She said: “We are striking because this is our planet, this is our life, our future. We are striking because we don’t want to be the people that have to tell our grandchildren ‘I’m sorry but your planet is going to die soon because we didn’t do anything about it’.

“This strike is important, it gives people a voice, it gives them a chance to express their feelings tell everybody what it happening. The reason why we are striking is because of people who are too scared or too ignorant of the threat to do anything about it but we need to take a stand, we need to act now. And as the suffragettes say ‘deeds not word’.”

Children as young as two also joined the strike, with children marching up and down Huntingdon High Street with banners reading ‘this can’t wait until we are bigger’ and ‘there’s no planet B’.

The international event was inspired by Swedish climate activist, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg. Demonstrations took part in more that 60 places in the UK, including London, Cornwall and Scotland.

The event follows a similar round of strike action which took place at primary schools across Cambridgeshire on February 15, in which pupils also walked out of lessons to hold demonstrations outside school gates.