These Climate Strike Kids Will Restore Your Hope In Humanity

NEW YORK CITY — Students around the world skipped school on Friday to be part of what was likely the biggest climate protests ever. Kids told VICE News their thoughts on what old folks should have done better.

“I’m really more just disappointed in my parents’ generation,” said Anaiah Thomas, 17 who had the words “zero hour” painted in red on her left cheek, and held a multicolored sign reading “river to river, we change the course.”

“People have known about the climate issue, scientists have been talking about it,” she said. “So now I’m just like, we need to be here, we need to be screaming so that maybe people will just listen this time.”

Zachary Yarnell, 11, had used a pencil to draw a picture of the earth in a toaster on the sign safety-pinned to his backpack.

“I wish they cleaned up after themselves before and this would never happen,” he said.

But Yarnell does have hope, and a plan. “I want to protest, I want to stop polluting, and I want to make the Earth a better place,” he said.

Cover: Anaiah Thomas, 17, from New York City, attended the 2019 “Climate Strike” in New York City on Sept. 20, 2019.

Edited by Jess Opon.