Hyderabad: Students protest climate inaction

Hyderabad: Over 524 students in the city skipped school and protested at the KBR Park to join the global movement against climate change. Inspired by Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old climate activist who has been nominated for the Nobel peace prize, several students in the city questioned the issues pertaining to the climate change and dema-nded to save the trees, lakes, and rocks of Hyderabad.

Students demonstrated using slogans and eco-friendly posters. “I want to raise my voice today bec-ause I don’t want to witness a future where my classmates and I have to sit in a class with oxygen cylinders. The environment needs urgent attention,” said Manish Bugalia, a seventh grade student.

Another student, Umera Farheen, said, “I don’t want to have to skip school due to sickness, so I'm skipping school now for a future where I can breathe fresh air.”

While some students skipped school and came voluntarily from their homes, others went to school and brought their teachers and principals as well as the protest and urged the government to consider their voices before taking any decision that might affect the environment.

“The future of our planet looks really bleak, and all our politicians are asleep. We have to wake them up, and I think that thousands of kids on the streets will do just that,” said an activist at the protest.

It can be mentioned here that, students from around 100 countries have taken part in the fight against climate change.

It has been happening for the last six months but scaled to a global level on March 15, when Greta called out to the students across the globe to raise their voices and dedicate Fridays for the future of the environment.