School’s Out

at

Charlotte Lennon tweetz:

#ClimateStrike #ClimateChange @GretaThunberg my youngest at our school strike in Celbridge Ireland @campaignforleo are you listening?

Lorna Gold tweetz:

History is gone. Let’s make future. #FridaysForFuture (photo: Maynooth Educate Together School, Ireland).

Nellie Tattersall tweetz:

Pupils and parents at NKETNS, Celbridge

Stuart Neilson tweetz:

School climate warriors assembling for the march from Opera House to City Hall.

Today.

School children across Ireland, and the world, are going on ‘strike’ to demonstrate about climate change.

It follows Swedish student Greta Thunberg, 16, who started hosting Friday protests outside the Swedish parliament eight months ago.

Students stage school strikes over climate change (RTE)

UPDATE:

This afternoon.

At Dublin’s Stephen Green.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

This afternoon.

On Molesworth Street, Dublin 2.

Via Philip Bromwell

UPDATE:

Via Ber Grogan

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

Eek.

Top four pics: Rollingnews

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123 thoughts on “School’s Out

    1. Nigel

      Please join your local campaign to improve cycling infrastructure and public transport so that these kids don’t grow up in a country where they’re obliged to rely on low-occupancy highly-polluting petrol and diesel vehicles, thank you. And it IS wonderful that they get help and support from their parents, isn’t it?

      1. realPolithicks

        It seems like he’s finally hit the terrible teens, no wonder he’s always so moody.

    1. gobbledy

      That was funny I read jusayinlike’s comment below and yours at the same time and mentally conflated them

      1. Nigel

        This gets more attention, don’t you think? Which makes it more successful and more effective.

        1. theo kretschmar schuldorff

          Less sympathetic attention, I think.
          A lot of people will look and see kids/teachers choosing a day out over schoolwork.

          “SRUE EARTH”?
          Those kids should definitely be in school. (that last bit is a funny joke. I love the font)

          1. Nigel

            But they’ll be looking, and there are people who will say anything about people, even children, who try to make a difference. They’ll be lucky if ‘choosing a day out over schoolwork’ is the harshest thing said about them. Why let that stop them? It’s a day away from school versus a man-made planetary catastrophe that could have been mitigated decades ago if action had been taken. Adults haven’t a leg to stand on in criticising them.

          2. theo kretschmar schuldorff

            Ah ah,
            We’re having a Friday versus Saturday dispute. The rest of the sentiment is noble.

          3. Nigel

            Are we? ‘School strike’ caught the imagination and spread all over the world. It’s working, so far. A Saturday demonstration might not have. What’s to dispute?

          4. theo kretschmar schuldorff

            I accept your argument that a Saturday action, in their own private time, is less likely to have caught-on among students globally.

      2. realPolithicks

        The reason these kids are out of school protesting is that us adults have fupped the planet up and are unwilling to take the steps necessary to fix it. If you want the kids to stay in school then maybe you should get out and try to do something instead of whining on BS.

  1. Frank.A

    There is plenty of worthy causes for children to get involved with. This isn’t one of them.
    Teach them to recycle, reuse, be responsible etc. but ‘striking’ for climate change. No thanks for my kids.
    Explain to your kids why Ireland will spend hundreds of millions buying ‘carbon credits’ rather than spending that money on cycle lanes or their schools or housing etc.
    Explain the gilets jaunes and the 17 weeks of protest in France and how those protests when they arrive here will be the ones to take your days off school as carbon tax balloons to €1500 a head.
    I’m not saying climate change is a scam but carbon tax most certainly is.

    1. Nigel

      Calling for action against climate change isn’t a worthy cause? It’s precisely because the government are faffing around with carbon credits and the carbon tax that they’re protesting. The implementation of a carbon tax is definitely an issue but is is far, fa from the only issue, and the fact of the matter is these strikes are not about specific policies but a general call for politicians to start treating climate change seriously. The yellow vests are not, as far as I’m aware, calling for serious policy changes to tackle climate change.

      1. Frank.A

        so you see an objective of their protest for Ireland to withdraw from the Kyoto protocol?
        The yellow vests protest against the rise in fuel cost (carbon tax).

        1. Nigel

          But that’s like protesting the water charges. Lots of very good reasons to object to the government’s implementation, but narrowly and fiercely targeted at the measure itself, even though to properly maintain water infrastructure charges are essential. The overall problem is much much bigger, and does include policies being implements and targeted properly so as not to overburden taxpayers who already bear the brunt of taxes and charges while the real culprits, the corporations, are given tax breaks and immunity and freedom from regulations. The water protests and yellow vests are what happens when policies are unjust, unfair, incompetent and corrupt.

          1. Nigel

            I think the main thing the strike wants to double down is just politicians starting to act as if there really is an ongoing threat to the entire globe. For example, whatever about our Kyoto commitments, the current Irish government has absolutely no interest in climate change or the ongoing crash in biodiversity. It has to become a major political issue at the ballot box. Anything else is just faffing about.

          2. Medium Sized C

            That’s it really, Nigel.

            Rather than arguing to the legitimacy of this, we adults should be listening and then voting accordingly.

            I think we should start by composting Pascal O’Donoghue.

      2. jusayinlike

        a worldwide carbon tax from the same people who most recently destroyed Syria for a gas pipeline from Qatar to Europe.

        1. Nigel

          i agree. Some people just see this as potentially another profitable form of austerity, making poor people pay for corporate pollution. The great carbon bailout. Tax the rich! Yer one from PPP tore into the guy from FF over this when taking about the upcoming Climate Action Committee report on the radio yesterday, she was brilliant.

          1. jusayinlike

            Gross hypocrisy and an unwillingness to tackle the farming industry undermine the whole initiative.

          2. Nigel

            This doesn’t make sense. You think the school strike kids wouldn’t be in favour of more sustainable agricultural methods being adopted?

          3. jusayinlike

            Kids being innocent, I can’t blame them if their silly obtuse parents don’t tell them that the vast percentage of pollution comes from the farming industry and not the fossil fuel industry.

          4. Nigel

            You’re not so innocent are you? Playing a weird little divide-and-rule PFJ-style splittery game of fossil fuels versus agriculture. Both need to be addressed. People can focus on one, or on the other, or both. and you can stand on the sidelines lying about the figures and calling people hypocrites, effectively working full time as a spoiler for the right.

          5. millie st murderlark

            I truly wonder at your comprehension sometimes, jusayinlike.

            Where are these smears? Am I missing something?

          6. Medium Sized C

            24% of Global GG emissions come from Farming and Land use.

            Claiming the majority comes from farming is just claptrap.

    2. Medium Sized C

      Except buying effective carbon offset is considerably more effective than cycle lanes.

  2. Whatsgoingon

    If you want to make the biggest impact then tackle industries. It will not be solved by putting more taxes on struggling family households. I don’t trust the government when they say they will raise carbon taxes and they will give it back in some other way. Guaranteed we will be short changed by the end of it all.

  3. Junkface

    These kids are 100% right about our Leaders of the world not doing enough about Climate Change, we have been falling behind for years, and the USA is doing huge damage at the worst possible time with a reality denier like Trump and the GOP. Things have to change immediately!

    1. jusayinlike

      Shame the corporate fossil fuel funded democrats are too busy shooting down AOC’ green new deal.

      1. Nigel

        No it’s a shame Donald Trump is a climate change denier but all you ever do is attack the Democrats.

        1. jusayinlike

          Diane Feinstein, Nanci Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren are not in favor of the green new deal.

          1. Nigel

            I have more faith that they can be brought around, or contribute positively, than anybody on the right, or from whatever political corner you come from.

          2. Nigel

            I know you’re not right wing. You’re just very useful to the right wing. If neither Bernie nor Tulsi get the nomination, will you support whoever does against Trump and the Republicans?

          3. jusayinlike

            More smears.

            If the nomination is rigged and the candidate erroneously elected like in 2016, and if that candidate is a corporate warmonger who’s voted for every illegal war over the past decade than no I won’t be voting for them.

          4. Nigel

            You have a vote in US elections? Mostly I suspect you’re setting yourself up to be a Trump supporter again the same way you’re setting yourself up to attack the climate strikes. Typical.

    1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

      Oh, I see what you did there. You used the same first letters, E and T and Initial Capped them. Smart and hilarious.

          1. Whatsgoingon

            You do a great impression yourself on numerous other topics…. Do you actually have a job Nigel. You spend all your time on Broadsheet. I enjoy broadsheet and when I get a chance to read it. I gloss over most of your comments as I think now, why listen to a person who only comments on broadsheet. What experience in their life gives them the right to lecture everyone else. I think you need to start getting your own life in order before preaching to everyone else. Now I must get back to work.

          2. millie st murderlark

            Lol. Your trophy for having a job (like most functional adults) is in the post. I bartered mine for a bag of Haribo.

          3. Janet, I ate my avatar

            He’s probably the boss, just cracks the whip and comments here , eh Nige :) ;)

          4. Whatsgoingon

            It gives me purpose Millie, it give me the means to look after my family and help look after the financial responsibilities of having one. I would not belittle that. I do think that yourself and Nigel could be doing a lot more worthwhile tasks. Any thread that I look at, always have the same people commenting. You are in that mix. Spend less time commenting and more time doing something that will actually make a difference. Obviously ye do not have the right balance.

          5. millie st murderlark

            Obviously you’re qualified to make a comment on my life based on comments I make on a blog. Please do go on.

        1. Medium Sized C

          Awesome.

          How do you support them though?
          As in, how are you lending your support to a technology that effectively doesn’t exist yet?

  4. Clampers Outside !

    Do your part kids, tell mum and dad you don’t want a sun, nor winter, holiday and that you’ll be happy spending two weeks in Mayo or whatever county seems like fun, there are plenty to choose from :)

    This post is not sarcasm, thank you.

  5. Dhaughton99

    These kids are going to be growing up ravaged with anxiety because their parents and teachers are relaying this agenda to them. 12 years to catastrophe. We are all going to die. Armageddon. Yadda, Yadda.

    I was listening to one on LBC this morning and she’s saying ‘what’s the point of learning when we are all going to die’. FFS

    1. Clampers Outside !

      +1

      We had the cold war and AIDS growing up… so, with this ‘end of the world in 12 years’ poo-scenario being fed to the youth today, I wonder what extreme could possibly be used on the generations to follow? (rhetorical)

      1. bertie blenkinsop

        “We had the cold war and AIDS growing up”…

        You’re looking well on it all the same :)

    2. Nigel

      That”s what happens when you fail abysmally to address an entirely predictable catastrophe.

      1. Medium Sized C

        This is worse.

        Only two bombs ever got used in anger and it was before anybody knew about how bad they were.
        This is actually happening.

  6. Spaghetti Hoop

    I’m all for the kids being vocal on this important topic, but ‘climate protests’ are a knee-jerk reaction and scupper the more measured and solution-based forms of support. I would much rather that these kids were in school, but learning how to arbitrate change via presentation of research-findings, deliberation, discussion and consensus. I know too many kids and parents alike that were all cock-a-hoop about mitching off for the day to attend this. I love the rebel spirit but I don’t think this is all that cool in the long run.

    1. Nigel

      They’re far more likely to learn those things through environmental activism than they are through school.

        1. Medium Sized C

          All of those things have been done.
          They don’t work.
          Teaching them about them in school is a sick joke.

    2. ReproBertie

      My daughter’s class were out on the side of the road protesting for an hour. That’s an hour they could have spent learning about a sky fairy who’s son had magic powers that mean people have to feel guilty about their bodies.

      1. jusayinlike

        Yes but that’s just the start though, that Swedish girls parents have removed her from school to travel the earth burning fossil fuels pontificating about fossil fuels and more than likely not addressing the fact that the global farming industry is causing far more harm.

        1. Nigel

          Both are causing harm and it’s hard to travel without burning fossil fuels. ‘More than likely’ eh? Why that’s as good as s certainty!

          1. jusayinlike

            fossil fuels account for 12%, farming accounts for 65%

            Whilst I agree it’s not easy to travel without a co2 trail, but if your going to throw stones it would be silly to be standing in a green house when doing it.

            It just emboldens the nae sayers..

          2. Nigel

            Naysayers don’t need much emboldening. Sensible people will acknowledge that we live in a fossil fuel-driven civilisation and ignore the witless charge that participating in a society automatically leaves you too compromised to change it.

          3. Nigel

            But which is 6% of all human emissions. Just to be clear, you are using this to justify attacking the young woman who started the school strike as some sort of hypocritical corporate shill because she is not focusing exclusively on this particular pet aspect of yours. You’re not making an argument that this needs to be tackled, you are arguing that anyone not exclusively focused on it is a lying hypocritical corporate shill. There is no political subject that your sense of purity and paranoia will not drive you to attack the people trying to change things, ultimately on behalf of and to the benefit of the right.

          4. jusayinlike

            No it’s actually 18%. My point is that these demos and the media are only focusing on fossil fuels and apparently the answer is carbon tax according to the government. I question certain groups motivations. It’s not my fault their hypocrites and you choose to ignore it.

          5. Nigel

            There’s no conspiracy behind this. People want fossil fuels left in the ground and they want farming practices to change and that barely scratches the surface of vital environmental issues. Don’t be so relentlessly dialectical and antagonistic.

        2. Lurch

          Where are you getting your figure of 65% GHG emissions from agriculture?
          24% from ag. inc. forestry etc. no? ……… and way less than fossil fuels.

          Reductions need to be made in every sector.

        3. Lobster

          You’re not making any suggestions to improve farming efficiency here, just complaining about it. Since farming is necessary for us to all have food to eat, we can’t just cancel it. What changes do you want to see in current farming practices? Are your ideas for change Ireland based, or in a different country, since there’s such variation in practices globally?

          1. jusayinlike

            My point was that agriculture worldwide at its current expansion rate is causing more harm than fossil fuels, and the media are focusing solely on fossil fuels.

          2. Nigel

            Jesus as if getting the media to focus on any aspect of climate change for more than five seconds isn’t a feckin miracle.

      2. Spaghetti Hoop

        Teaching religion in schools is a different issue entirely! Think that’s between you, your child and the school you choose.

        1. ReproBertie

          The school we chose was happy to participate in today’s demonstration and I’m happy with that. I doubt the hour spent in a civic activity will have a negative impact on their education in any way.

      3. theo kretschmar schuldorff

        Or maths.
        One of them might go on to perfect cold fusion and save us all.

  7. Lurch

    Great to see these kids out demanding their right to live in a safe and fruitful planet.
    Hopefully they can resist the subservient and indifferent attitudes of preceding generations.

  8. Unimpressed

    Remember, up until very very recently all these protestors also believed in Santa Claus.

  9. SOQ

    Over half of the omissions within Ireland come from bovines and 95%+ of that beef is exported to GB. There is no reason for a carbon tax while this continues.Teach the children that they can be happy and healthy living on a plant based diet.

    Stop producing and eating meat, it really is that simple.

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