- Who
- Global Climate Strike 2019
- What
- 7,220,000 people
- Where
- Not Applicable ()
- When
The Global Climate Strike on 20–27 September 2019 was a week-long mobilization calling for governments to take greater action to tackle the climate crisis, which was book-ended by two large-scale demonstrations (“climate strikes”). It’s estimated that across the two main strike days (Friday 20 September and Friday 27 September), approximately 7.22 million people across more than 160 countries took part in 7,935 registered events, ranging in scale from a handful of people to hundreds of thousands. The second strike on 27 September logged a slightly higher attendance of c. 3.76 million (compared to c. 3.46 million on 20 September). The Global Climate Strike was spearheaded by activist movements Fridays For Future and School Strike 4 Climate - championed by Greta Thunberg - but was supported by many grassroots groups, charities, institutions and environmental NGOs, including 350, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Climate Action Network.
The geographic range of the Global Climate Strike was unprecedented. On both strike days, a protest was even staged in Antarctica by scientists and support staff working at the South Pole research station – the most southerly climate protest on record.
Not surprisingly, the highest attendance figures were seen in major metropolises. Estimates indicate that on 20 Sep, Berlin, Germany, saw some 270,000 protesters take to the streets, New York, USA 260,000, London, UK 100,000 and Sydney, Australia 80,000. On 27 Sep, some of the biggest rallies took place in Canada: Montreal (501,000), Vancouver (250,000) and Toronto (80,000), as well as Rome, Italy (200,000), Barcelona, Spain (140,000) and Santiago, Chile (110,000).
Precise protester numbers are notoriously difficult to pinpoint, with there often being discrepancies between figures reported by event organizers and those cited by local authorities or governments. These figures are based on a combination of self-reported, media reports and official accounts. Numbers aside, both in terms of scale and spread, there is no doubt that the 2019 Global Climate Strike sparked the largest demonstrations pertaining to climate breakdown/crisis in history.
