The Return of Fridays for Future

 It's difficult not to be aware of Greta Thunberg, the dimunutive Swedish teen who rather quixotically began a personal protest to address the climate emergency. three years ago. Somehow her efforts drew first domestic and then international attention and her Friday protests became events drawing tens of thousands of people in citiies around the world. The march in Montreal in September of 2019 drew an estimated half million people, probably the largest crowd ever for a Friday's for Future event.

I mused about Thunberg as a prophetic figure, even though she isn't a religious person. In the tradition of many of the biblical prophets she is an unlikely candidate for the role and has been reviled by some in power, yet she has persistently spoken truth to power and has inspired untold numbers of her peers. 

Then came the pandemic, and while the movement didn't go away the opportunities for public demonstrations disappeared. There is a global call to action today and there will be a Fridays for Future Quinte event in downtown Belleville (Market Square 1:30). I hope that today will mark a revival of the public face of the movement and that it will be a wake-up call after the enforced slumber brought about by the pandemic.

 God be with all those who are providing leadership in these events, the participants, and those in governments and industry can make a difference. 

                                                                         WHAT WE DO:

 #FridaysForFuture is a youth-led and -organised movement that began in August 2018, after 15-year-old Greta Thunberg and other young activists sat in front of the Swedish parliament every schoolday for three weeks, to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis. She posted what she was doing on Instagram and Twitter and it soon went viral. 

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