A group of climate activists on Friday morning staged a demonstration in front of the Finnish Parliament demanding urgent action against climate change.
Seven activists gathered at the venue at 10:00 a.m. as a part of the weekly climate movement “Fridays For Future” and stayed there until 12.00 noon with colourful banners.
The banners included various slogans such as "Stop Fossil Fuels" and "The Planet Is Heating Up, Catastrophe Is Approaching."
“It’s a reminder to our politicians that we haven’t forgotten about climate change. We will remind them every single week,” one of the organisers, Steven, who has been participating in almost every weekly demonstration in Helsinki since 2018 told Daily Finland.
He criticised both the media and public's “short memory” amid overlapping crises such as wars and the Covid-19 pandemic, which, he argued, led to the marginalisation and neglect of climate change, a challenge he described as “the biggest problem of this century.”
Replying to a query regarding the low turnout at the demonstration, Steven attributed it to the parliamentary calendar.
“We’re usually more when the Parliament is in session. Many have decided to attend only when it's open from mid-September to mid-June,” Steven added.
Fridays for Future is an international climate movement that began on 20 August 2018, when Swedish activist Greta Thunberg started skipping school every Friday to protest alone in front of the Swedish Parliament to demand urgent and decisive action against the climate emergency.
Thunberg’s solitary strike quickly inspired students across the world to take similar action, leading to an international, youth-led movement that has since expanded beyond students to include a diverse range of participants from various sectors of society.
- Climate
- Protest
- Helsinki
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
