GLOBAL CLIMATE STRIKE MARCH 2021

I’m part of the problem, I want to be part of the solution.

This year’s strike was different than any before. During a lockdown, the challenge was to have as many people in a safe and legal environment. The brilliant idea of the organisers was a chain of people around the city’s imperial ring road, each individual with a three meter distance to the next.

I joined just before noon to listen to speeches and music acts doing cover versions of mainstream songs, dubbed with new climate crisis lyrics. There were twenty spots around the ring road, to avoid big crowds in one place, and I chose the one opposite the president’s office and the (temporary) parliament.

Two years earlier, Greta Thunberg gave a speech there. She visited many European capitals before embarking on her journey across the Atlantic. It was another moment of what everybody hoped were historic dimensions at Heldenplatz, a place where so many world changing events took place – both positive and negative.

I thought of her speech when it suddenly occurred to me that I could give a few spontaneous remarks as well. Immediately, I got emotional. On…