STUDENTS at Budehaven took to the school’s playground recently as part of a national protest for schoolchildren and young people to voice their concerns about climate change.

The ‘climate strike’ saw thousands of UK school children and young people calling for urgent action against the ever-imposing threat of climate change. This significant move proves that the country’s young people are growing increasingly concerned about climate change, the environment and, ultimately, their futures.

The Post was contacted around lunchtime on Friday, February 15 by a Budehaven student, who was one of many children partaking in the protest in Bude that day.

She explained that protestors were trying to protest in ‘the most non-violent way possible’ by writing messages about the issue surrounding climate change and the environment on the walls and ground.

As the protest took place, the student said: “We’re all protesting for the strike on climate change — there are lots of students the playground writing messages on the walls. I think there’s more than a hundred of us here.”

Another student who was keen to speak to the Post, said: “There’s been quite an interesting response — there have been some really positive messages and then some negative ones too. So it’s been strange — a lot of mixed reactions. There is quite a divide between people in their political opinions.”

The first student continued: “It’s been quite crazy here. But we really want people to realise that we are serious about this. People need to recognise the problem.”

She explained that a group of students had heard about a march in Bideford for the campaign, as well as the other protests taking place across the country, and decided at the last minute to get involved in the stand against climate change.

“We just thought, we really should be a part of it. How can we make people listen to us? We can’t paint on the walls, so we thought that using chalk would be amazing, because it washes off and would allow us to protest for the cause in a non-violent way.”

Budehaven students made the decision to protest at 11am on Friday morning in the school’s playground, and went back to lessons as normal at 2pm.

Nationally, protests took place in around 60 towns and cities. Protesters in London took their campaign to Westminster, stopping in Parliament Square to demand change.

Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres was one of many who voiced her support for the cause, saying it was ‘moving’. She said: “It’s time to heed the deeply moving voice of youth and schoolchildren, who are so worried about their future that they need to strike to make us pay attention.

“It is a sign that we are failing in our responsibility to protect them from the worsening impacts of climate change.”

However, education secretary Damian Hinds said missing class was not the answer: “I want young people to be engaged in key issues affecting them and involving themselves in causes they care about.

“But let me be clear, missing class won’t do a thing to help the environment — all they will do is create extra work for teachers.”

The movement started in Sweden by teenager Greta Thunberg, who protests each Friday outside Sweden’s parliament to urge leaders to tackle climate change. Greta has inspired students in Australia, the UK and other European countries to follow in her lead.

The UN recently released a report, which warned that limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, beyond which climate impacts become increasingly severe, requires unprecedented action. This includes cutting global carbon dioxide emissions by almost half within 12 years.

The protests that took place on Friday were a shared call on the UK government to declare a climate emergency, and encourage leaders to reform the curriculum to make it an educational priority.