Global Climate Strike UK 2019 – everything you need to know
MILLIONS of activists have taken to the UK's streets in a week-long protest of Global Climate Strikes against the environmental crisis.
Campaigners - mainly still at school - are demanding action on global warming from world leaders. Here's what you need to know.
When is the Global Climate Strike?
The protests kicked off on Friday, September 20, and this particular week of action ends today, September 27.
The week long event also incorporates Fridays For Future - where students take time off school to demonstrate over global warming.
The strikes were planned to coincide with a UN emergency climate action summit being held in New York.
The UN Youth Climate Summit was held on September 21, and the UN Climate Action Summit on September 23.
How can you get involved in the strikes?
The strikes have taken place in over 150 countries in more than 4,000 locations across the globe.
Protests on Friday, September 20, were thought to be the largest ever organised.
The ones on September 27 are not expected to draw such large numbers - but millions are still expected to attend strikes hosted in multiple countries across the globe.
September 27 also marks the anniversary of Rachel Carson's seminal work Silent Spring, considered to have kick-started the environmentalist movement.
protests will take place across the UK, from London and Birmingham to Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Timings will vary from city to city.
The official has all the latest information where users are able to hover over a pin on the map to bring up details of the action.
There's also a map available at .
Information can also be found by searching Twitter for a city or location near you and adding the hashtag #climatestrike.
What is it all about?
The movement has been inspired by Swedish schoolgirl and climate activist Greta Thunberg.
Thunberg is behind the Fridays for Future movement which evolved into the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement.
The young eco-activists have called upon politicians to take climate change seriously, although these demonstrations are for all ages and are thought to draw the biggest crowds yet.
The Global Climate Strike movement intends to "disrupt business" all over the world to raise awareness of the issue.
Greta is joining the strike in Montreal, Canada, on September 27 to lend her support to the movement there.
Who's in support?
Various NGOs, unions, universities and global companies such as Amazon are all behind the cause
Community groups and churches are also getting involved.
And of course it's supported by students and young people who will strike from school to demand urgent and decisive action on the climate crisis.
Who is Greta Thunburg?
Greta Thunberg has become one of the world's most high profile campaigners for action to tackle climate change.
The 16-year-old first hit the headlines in 2018 when she inspired international youth climate strikes and spoke at the Extinction Rebellion protests before she met UK politicians.
Greta was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2003.
She shot to fame as the poster-girl for climate change awareness after a picture of her “school strike for climate change” was posted on Facebook by Swedish eco-warrior, Ingmar Rentzhog.
Her strike inspired tens of thousands of students from around the world to join her #FridaysforFuture demonstrations - skipping school every Friday to protest climate change.
Nationwide protests took place earlier this year when thousands of students in the UK skipped school to call on the Government to make tackling climate change a priority.
Greta was driven to take action by a record heatwave in northern Europe and forest fires that ravaged swathes of Swedish land up to the Arctic.
What is global warming and what caused it?
Global warming describes a set of changes to the climate that is causing the Earth to heat up.
This rising of the Earth's temperature is often talked about in the context of the "greenhouse effect" to explain the damage being wreaked on our planet.
Without the greenhouse effect the Earth's surface would be an average of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit cooler, and therefore unlivable.
The effect allows gases in but keeps heat from escaping from the earth, like the glass walls of a greenhouse.
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However, over the past century humans have aggravated the greenhouse effect by dramatically increasing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Human sources of CO2 come from activities such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas.
Since the Industrial Revolution the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has rocketed by a third.
This rapid rise has had a direct impact on the Earth's average temperature, with potentially catastrophic consequences.
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