Most southerly climate protest
Who
Benjamin Eberhardt, South Pole, Global Climate Strike, 20 Sep 2019
What
90° S decimal degree(s)
Where
Antarctica ()
When

The most southerly climate protest took place at the Geographic South Pole, at a latitude of 90° S, on 20 September 2019. The demonstration, which was organized by astrophysicist Benjamin Eberhardt (Germany) as part of the Global Climate Strike, was attended by a multinational group of seven people, all of whom were scientists or support staff working at the nearby South Pole research station in the Antarctic interior. A secondary climate protest with six people from the same group was staged at the South Pole a week later.


Spearheaded by the climate-change movements Fridays for Future and School Strike 4 Climate (supported by numerous other environmental charities, NGOs and grass-roots organizations), the Global Climate Strike was a week-long mobilization (“Week for Future”) on 20–27 September 2019, headlined by two major strikes on Friday 20th and Friday 27th. Globally, it’s estimated that as many as 7.2 million took part in those two demonstrations (3.46 million on 20 Sep; 3.76 million on 27 Sep), with thousands of events taking place in more than 160 countries on all seven continents. This easily makes it the largest climate protest in history.

Eberhardt and his group were not the only people in Antarctica to participate in the Global Climate Strike on 20 Sep 2019. Seven people at Neumayer Station (70.64° S) located in Atka Bay, Queen Maud Land, also held their own strike.

Because the Geographic South Pole (GSP) is located on an ice sheet that is constantly sliding across the bedrock, each year the marker that indicates the true position of the GSP has to be recalculated and moved around 10 m (33 ft).

The most northerly climate protest was staged exactly one year later by ornithologist and campaigner Mya-Rose Craig (UK) on a floating piece of ice in the Arctic Ocean at a latitude of 82.40° N on 20 September 2020.