Around the world this week, people will stop what they’re doing and stand up to call for great action against climate change.

Climate strike protest signs

It began with 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg and quickly became a global movement.

Starting today, and continuing for most of the coming week, students and workers from around the world will go on strike to call for immediate action to protect the planet and its residents from the threats of climate change.

Its origins were as a student movement, but the Climate Strike is now more far-reaching, with 2,500 local events in 117 countries. Many companies, including Patagonia, will even close their doors and encourage their employees to participate.

The official strike is today, Sept. 20, but events will continue all week, most notably in front of the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York City on Monday.

If you don’t already have plans, you can find a map of events on the Climate Strike website. Many protests have their own Facebook event listings, so check there too for events in your area.

If you go we’d love to see your photos or social media postings and hear your thoughts from whatever Climate Strike event you attended. Drop us a line at tips@therevelator.org.

And don’t worry if you can’t go on strike this week. Not everyone can take time off from work or school, even for such an important cause. You can also help online today, and you can continue to take action every day by calling your elected officials, sharing your stories and knowledge with friends and family, and working to hold companies accountable for creating the climate-change crisis in the first place.

John R. Platt

is the editor of The Revelator. An award-winning environmental journalist, his work has appeared in Scientific American, Audubon, Motherboard, and numerous other magazines and publications. His “Extinction Countdown” column has run continuously since 2004 and has covered news and science related to more than 1,000 endangered species. He is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Association of Science Writers. John lives on the outskirts of Portland, Ore., where he finds himself surrounded by animals and cartoonists.

Tara Lohan  

worked as The Revelator's deputy editor from 2018-2024. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis and is working on a book about dam removal.