The 74th UN General Assembly is in Session. More than 90 heads of state have descended at the UN’s New York headquarters to discuss and debate the world’s most pressing issues. As a lead in to the Climate Action Youth Summit and Climate Action Summit, millions of people (from toddlers to great-grandparents) took to the streets to demand that world leaders do more to combat climate change and do it quickly. In Nairobi and New York; Warsaw and Washington DC; Berlin, Bangkok and Brussels; Sydney and Sao Paulo; Melbourne and Mumbai, Kabul and Kiribati, Afghanistan and Istanbul; in over 4600 events in 150 countries, more than 4 million people (including a lone man in central Moscow) marched to save our planet.
So this week, I share articles that remind us of all the issues we face as a human family — issues which threaten the futures of all our children; issues which, as daunting as they may seem, we actually have the power to resolve. And I share articles about the Climate Strike and the related landmark complaint filed with the UN against several countries. These stories inspire us all to do more; to raise our own voices; to harness the enormous power in standing together for what is right; to teach our children to do the same and to let them build the future they envision.
Here are my picks for the top Parenting for the Future stories this week:
More than 90 heads of state are descending on New York City. Here’s what to watch for:
The number #1 item on the agenda is the world’s climate emergency.
UN Climate Action Summit 2019
UN Secretary-General António Guterres is calling on world leaders to come to New York with concrete, realistic plans to enhance their contributions by 2020, in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent over the next decade, and to net zero emissions by 2050.
United Nations Global Issues Overview
As the world’s only truly universal global organization, the United Nations has become the foremost forum to address issues that transcend national boundaries and cannot be resolved by any one country acting alone.
United Nations: The Global Goals for Sustainable Development
UN Member States have designed a set of 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development that will frame the international agenda and policies over the next 15 years.
The world’s biggest problems and why they’re not what first comes to mind
Think you know what the world’s biggest challenges are? The results may surprise you.
16 children, including Greta Thunberg, file landmark complaint to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child
Sixteen child petitioners – including Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Villaseñor – from 12 countries around the world today presented a landmark official complaint to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to protest lack of government action on the climate crisis.
CLIMATE ACTIONS TAKEN AROUND THE WORLD
ActNow is the United Nations’ global call to individual action on climate change. The campaign is a critical part of the UN’s coordinated effort to raise awareness, ambition, and action for climate change and accelerate implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Young People Lead Millions To Protest Global Inaction On Climate Change<br/>
Millions of young people raised their voices at protests around the world Friday in a massive display meant to demand urgent action on climate change. Scores of students missed school to join those calling for immediate change.
‘No Planet B’: Millions take to streets in global climate strike
Protesters in hundreds of cities around the world took to the streets, demanding their governments take urgent steps to tackle the climate crisis and prevent an environmental catastrophe.
‘We will make them hear us’: Millions of youths around the world strike for action
In one of the largest youth-led demonstrations in history, millions of people from Manhattan to Mumbai took to the streets around the globe on Friday, their chants, speeches and homemade signs delivering the same stern message to world leaders: do more to combat climate change — and do it faster.
Protesting Climate Change, Young People Take to Streets in a Global Strike
Anxious about their future on a hotter planet and angry at world leaders for failing to arrest the crisis, masses of young people poured into the streets on every continent on Friday for a day of global climate protests. Organizers estimated the turnout to be around four million in thousands of cities and towns worldwide.
Hundreds of Thousands Demand Climate Action in Massive Youth-Led Strikes Around the World
“We understand that if we don’t fight for a livable planet, there is no future for us,” London activist Lola Fayokun, 18, tells TIME.
Scientists worldwide join strikes for climate change
From Bangkok to Brisbane, researchers were among those protesting to urge action on global warming.