Cities around the globe were filled with students taking part in a massive climate change protest yesterday.
The 16-year-old activist at the center of it all is speaking out. 16-year-old Greta Thunberg started a movement when she stopped going to school on Fridays.
She says, “Our house is on fire, and we all should be angry.” Her blunt talks are going viral and her image is on magazines worldwide. NBC asked Thunberg why she thinks her voice resonates. She responded, “When a child says you are stealing my future, then people feel very guilty. And they listen in a way that maybe they hadn’t done before.”
Bullied at school and diagnosed with Asperger’s when she was 11, Thunberg sees the climate crisis as black and white, with a million species now threatened with extinction.
She says, “We need to understand the scale of what’s happening, and we need to tackle the crisis.”
Thunberg and her millions of followers want more than just the world’s attention. They want action.
Organizers estimated the turnout to be around four million in cities and towns worldwide. In New York City, it’s estimated that 600,000 people marched through the city. It looked like there were people in eastern Iowa participating in this as well.
