Greta, tens of thousands in ‘biggest ever’ Amsterdam climate demo

AMSTERDAM: Environmental activist Greta Thunberg joined tens of thousands in the “biggest ever” climate march through Amsterdam on Sunday, aimed at pushing the climate crisis up the political agenda 10 days ahead of crunch national elections.

Carrying placards reading: “Our house is on fire”, “In 2050: ´Daddy, what are trees?´”, and “Climate Justice Now,” demonstrators packed into Amsterdam´s central square and set off through the streets. Around 70,000 people took part, smashing previous records for such a march, said organisers, a coalition of pressure groups, including Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future, Oxfam, and Greenpeace.

“We are not standing on the brink of a catastrophe, we are living in it,” Thunberg told the crowd. “People on the front lines of the climate crisis have been experiencing the first-hand consequences of it for decades now and they have been sounding the alarm, but we have not been listening,” she added. Her speech was briefly interrupted by a protester, who said the demonstration was focusing too much on politics rather than the climate.

“The atmosphere is amazing. I can feel the energy of a lot of young people who want to change the world,” 19-year-old political science student Tijn Veenhoven told AFP. “I´m just angry because the world is angry and no one is doing anything about it,” said physics student Ieke Snel, 18.