Thousands of people are in the streets, holding signs, protesting for world leaders at the G7 summit to take action about climate and economic policies. Environmental activists gathered together in a total number of about 15,000.

The protesters are comprised of multiple groups. The Yellow Vest started in France because of the green tax on fuel by President Macron. The Basque Independence Movement originated in Spain and fought for independence against Spain and France. The movement came to protests to get world leader’s attention on the economic policies recently put into action and climate change. These two groups will be joined by the Action non-violent COP21 which is a climate activist group against the current president of France, Emmanuel Macron. All groups came together to protest for climate change and the economic policies created, as well as to promote alternatives to the countries meeting at the G7 summit. Teachers and students were asked to see if they would join them. “If I could I would. In my opinion, climate change is a threat to our environment. The increase in global warming can continue to destroy the environment. Ocean levels can rise for example. If we don’t act now it will be too late,” said Mrs. Kern. Others would not go to the protests because it is not the United States problem, so there is no point in going to this protest. “No because we already reduced here in the US. They are already breaking their agreement anyway (The Paris agreement to take action on global warming). They aren’t doing what they said to do,” comments Mr. Kingston. 

The G7 summit started August 24th and ended the 26th and met in Hendaye, France, and Irun, Spain, both located in Basque country.  The summit is where world leaders from the United States, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, and the United Kingdom come to discuss economic and geopolitical problems happening all over the world. Recently the summit covered the Amazon Rain forest fires, how the fires are affecting climate change and to review the fight over Kashmir. 

At the summit the Amazon forest fires were approached, and the leaders came to the conclusion that the fires are a global crisis. The leaders have put together $20 million to help support the cost of specialized equipment to help put out the fires. Not only where the Amazon forest fires on the table, but also climate change too. The fires are contributing to global warming by creating more carbon dioxide in the air. 

Climate change was put briefly on the table at the end of the summit by President Macron of France and German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Both brought up the idea that the fires would increase the amount of carbon dioxide which contributes to global warming. 

Students and teachers were asked if they would use different resources to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. “Change it completely. use solar power and wind power. We have the science and if we are willing to go all the way, we need to change it immediately to those natural ways. I think climate change is both policy and politics. It should be policy because we need changes.” said a student. Others argued that we can not change so quickly from depending on our resources today.  “You can’t use one without the other. I try to limit what I use. But it is gonna be, you can’t stop one or start another. Look for alternative sources. If we stop we won’t know what to do,” says Mrs. Kern.

The protests at the G7 summit are just a few of the many to come. On Friday September 20, students from all over the world will gather together to protest for climate change.  At our own school, John Adams will have a walk out for a protest for climate change on the track at 12:45pm on Friday September 27.