Youth climate strikers demonstrate in Manhattan, Madrid
NEW YORK - Youth climate strikers held a rally near City Hall on Friday to keep the focus on an issue they say keeps getting hushed.
“This generation is very aware of what’s happening to our planet because we’re the ones who are gonna receive it from our leaders,” said teen climate activist Alexandria Villasenor. “So our world leaders failing to act on the climate crisis is gonna affect me generation the most.”
The rally coincides with protests in Madrid to demand concrete action against climate change from leaders and negotiators at a global summit.
The Madrid event was led by dozens of representatives of Latin America's indigenous peoples — a mark of deference after anti-government protests in Chile, the original host of the summit, resulted in the talks suddenly being moved to Europe for the third year in a row.
Celebrity climate activist Greta Thunberg was also in attendance, declaring from a stage that “change is not going to come from the people in power, it's going to come from the masses."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.