Greta Thunberg is urging fellow young climate activists to join her at a last-minute “school strike” in Bristol this week.
The 17-year-old climate crisis activist will be taking part in a Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate (BYS4C) march starting in the city’s College Green on Friday morning.
Thunberg contacted local campaigners because she “wanted to strike with us”, the BYS4C group’s Izzy Smitheman told the BBC.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“We didn’t have a strike planned, so it’s a lot of last-minute organisation,” said Smitheman, also 17. “The whole Bristol community has come together to make it happen. We think Greta’s presence will make it very big and bring a lot of energy to the strike.”
The Times reports that thousands of children are expected to flock to the event to protest alongside Thunberg, who is taking a gap year that has already seen her meeting with world leaders and sailing across the Atlantic.
She is expected to travel to the city by train and is due to make a speech before joining the march.
Announcing her visit, the Time Person of the Year for 2019 wrote on Twitter:
Bristol City Council Green Party Councillor Carla Denyer told the Bristol Live website: “Greta Thunberg and the millions of climate strikers she inspired have played such a crucial role in forcing climate change up the agenda and ensuring that politicians and other leaders cannot be seen to be ignoring the issue.”
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For a round-up of the most important stories from around the world - and a concise, refreshing and balanced take on the week’s news agenda - try The Week magazine. Start your trial subscription today –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Thunberg’s appearance in Bristol comes as her mother outlines the difficulties that the teenager, who has Asperger’s syndrome, experienced growing up.
In an extract published in the The Observer from the Thunbergs’ upcoming book, Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis, Malena Ernman, 49, said that her daughter developed an eating disorder and was “slowly disappearing into some kind of darkness” before she started protesting.
Ernman writes: “Greta was 11 and was not doing well. She cried on her way to school. She cried in her classes and during her breaks, and the teachers called home almost every day.”
However, since beginning her activism, “Greta’s energy is exploding”, Ernman continues. “There doesn’t seem to be any outer limit, and even if we try to hold her back she just keeps going. By herself.”
-
Woolf Works: the Royal Ballet’s ‘inspired’ production’The Week Recommends Wayne McGregor’s three-act show brings Virginia Woolf’s creative world ‘vividly’ to life
-
The 8 best biopic movies of the 21st century (so far!)the week recommends Not all true stories are feel good tales, but the best biopics offer insight into broader social and political trends
-
Washington grapples with ICE’s growing footprint — and futureTALKING POINTS The deadly provocations of federal officers in Minnesota have put ICE back in the national spotlight
-
Climate change could lead to a reptile ‘sexpocalypse’Under the radar The gender gap has hit the animal kingdom
-
The former largest iceberg is turning blue. It’s a bad sign.Under the radar It is quickly melting away
-
How drones detected a deadly threat to Arctic whalesUnder the radar Monitoring the sea in the air
-
‘Jumping genes’: how polar bears are rewiring their DNA to survive the warming ArcticUnder the radar The species is adapting to warmer temperatures
-
Environment breakthroughs of 2025In Depth Progress was made this year on carbon dioxide tracking, food waste upcycling, sodium batteries, microplastic monitoring and green concrete
-
Crest falling: Mount Rainier and 4 other mountains are losing heightUnder the radar Its peak elevation is approximately 20 feet lower than it once was
-
Death toll from Southeast Asia storms tops 1,000speed read Catastrophic floods and landslides have struck Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia
-
Can for-profit geoengineering put a pause on climate change?In the Spotlight Stardust Solutions wants to dim the sun. Scientists are worried.
