Latest news with #FridaysforFuture
News18
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Israel Warns It Will ‘Act Accordingly' As Greta Thunberg Sails To Gaza With Aid: ‘We're Prepared'
Last Updated: Greta Thunberg joined 11 others- including Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham- on a ship operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition which departed from Catania. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is sailing toward Gaza aboard a humanitarian aid vessel as Israel said that it is 'prepared" to stop the flotilla from breaching its naval blockade of the besieged Palestinian territory. The 22-year-old activist joined 11 others- including Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham- on the Madleen, a ship operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which departed from Catania, Italy, on Sunday. The group said that their mission is a peaceful attempt to deliver essential aid and to challenge what they call Israel's 'illegal siege" and 'escalating war crimes" in Gaza. What Israel Said On Greta Thunberg? The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a warning saying, 'For this case as well, we are prepared. We have gained experience in recent years, and we will act accordingly." The flotilla is carrying supplies including baby formula, flour, diapers, hygiene kits, water filters and medical equipment for civilians in Gaza, which has been under total blockade for more than 90 days. Greta Thunberg's Journey To Gaza Greta Thunberg has been documenting the journey online, posting images of herself wrapped in a keffiyeh, holding a Palestinian flag and swimming in the Mediterranean. She said, 'We are doing this because no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying—because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity." Who is Greta Thunberg? Greta Thunberg rose to global fame in 2018 at the age of 15, when she began skipping school every Friday to protest outside the Swedish parliament, demanding urgent action on climate change. Her protest sparked a global youth climate movement known as Fridays for Future. Since then, she has addressed the UN, EU and multiple world leaders, becoming one of the most prominent voices in climate activism. About the Author Mallika Soni When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?" First Published: June 05, 2025, 15:26 IST
The Star
28-05-2025
- General
- The Star
Boomers, Gen Z, Gen X: Do generation labels make any sense
First there were the baby boomers, then Generation (or Gen) X, followed by Y, Z and Alpha. This year, a new cohort has emerged: Gen Beta. This generation, expected to span from 2025 to 2040, is already being discussed by demographers and sociologists, with the term gaining traction in English-language media. But how meaningful are these generational labels and what do they really tell us about the people they define? 'They are more of a popular science category,' says generational researcher Rudiger Maas, author of the book Konflikt der Generationen (Generational Conflict). Sociologist and youth researcher Klaus Hurrelmann says: 'The classifications have become very common in marketing and advertising, but also in science.' Boomers and millennials A new generation emerges on the scene roughly every 15 years: the numerous and self-confident baby boomers – those born after World War II up until 1964, were followed by Gen X, for people born from 1965 to 1979. Gen Y, also known as the millennials, from 1980 to 1994, or sometimes seen as those born until the end of the 1990s, depending on the classification. They were the first generation not to experience the East-West conflict during their formative teenage years, but they did experience the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001 and the financial crisis. Those born between 1995 and 2010 belong to Gen Z, a group often stereotyped as having a poor work ethic. However, it has been reported that Gen Z's approach to work is shaped by their values, priorities and desire for work-life balance. Perceptions of 'laziness' may, in fact, be rooted in generational misunderstandings rather than reality. Participants chant slogans during a climate strike demonstration organised by the international movement Fridays for Future. Photo: EBRAHIM NOROOZI/AP Adhering to generational classifications arbitrary Of course, the classifications are somewhat arbitrary – children born at the beginning of this year are no different than those born at the end of 2024. 'It's more like the zodiac signs,' says Maas. In other words – some people put stock into this – and others not. In addition, phenomena are sometimes associated with a particular age group, even though they are not characteristic of it as a whole. Maas cites the equation of Gen Z with Fridays for Future and sustainability. A study by his Institute for Generation Research showed that only about 15% of young people identified with their so-called generation. Wars and technical innovations shape personalityHowever, it is undisputed that there are generational differences. This can be seen in everyday things: older people ring doorbells instead of sending a WhatsApp message telling a person they are visiting that they are 'downstairs.' And they like to make phone calls often – instead of sending voice messages. 'The core idea of age cohorts is plausible,' says Hurrelmann in an interview with dpa. 'Wars, upheavals, technical innovations leave traces in people's personalities, and this is especially true in adolescence, when people are shaped for their entire lives. Of course, everyone is unique, but there are also many similarities.' Those who went through puberty around 2020 were very strongly influenced by the coronavirus pandemic, for example. Are today's teenagers a 'coronavirus generation? 'Studies show that this has led to considerable uncertainty. You could almost speak of a 'coronavirus generation.'' says Hurrelmann. However, it is important to note that not everyone has had the same experiences. 'It makes a huge difference whether you experienced the coronavirus pandemic in a stable family home, where your parents earned well and were able to switch to working from home, or whether you had parents who had economic problems and were really thrown off course as a result.' 'And these differences are easily obscured by the cliched division into generations,' he adds. Hurrelmann says generational labels such as baby boomers and Gen X, Y and Z have become very common, not only in marketing and advertising, but also in science. — BRITTA PEDERSEN/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa What's expected for Gen Beta 'You can always speak of a new generation when there is a noticeable change in circumstances,' said Maas, the generational researcher and book author. The famous Gen Z – born between about 1995 and 2010 – is, for example, the first generation to have grown up with social media and cyberspace as a matter of course. The consequences of this development can hardly be overestimated. 'Members of Gen Z touch their smartphones about 4,000 to 5,000 times a day and unlock them several hundred times,' says Maas. 'It's fair to say that never before in human history has an object been touched and used so often.' Maas expects that those who have been labelled as Generation Beta will be even more digitalised and, above all, influenced by artificial intelligence (AI). 'The majority of them will work in jobs that don't even exist yet. They will encounter a labour market for which they provide all the experience, and no one to train them, because they are the first.' It's also a world in which it will become increasingly difficult to know which data can be trusted. What is really true, what is AI-generated, and what is not? Maas is convinced that 'AI will not make the reality of life easier and more convenient for today's babies, but much more complex and challenging.' Hurrelmann believes that it is not yet possible to say much about Gen Beta with any certainty – except for one thing: It will in all likelihood be a very small generation, because the birth rate is currently falling. – dpa
Time of India
11-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Women entrepreneurs and sustainable brands shine at Lucknow Farmers Market
1 2 Lucknow: Over 5,000 farmers, startups and community groups participated in the Lucknow Farmers Market (LFM) online and offline on Sunday. Organised at Habibullah Estate here, over 80% of the participating entrepreneurs were women, showcasing their produce, including organic dals, spices, fresh vegetables, candles, cosmetics and baked goods. Homegrown brands such as Candlerea, The Masala Box, Our Pasta Lab and Vedic Organic Farming embodied the spirit of mindful consumption at the LFM. "At the heart of the LFM is the belief that nurturing our communities begins with empowering women, honouring mothers and healing our planet," said founder of LFM Jyotsana Kaur favourites included 'Maaji ke Haathon ka Achaar' by Divya Singh, born during the pandemic and Madhu Makkhi, Safura Haider's brand offering organic honey and mustard oil. Other highlights at the market included Just Cakes and Yellow House, which delighted visitors with their colourful array of bakery treats. From freshly baked doughnuts and cupcakes to handcrafted candies and marshmallows, their stalls added a sweet charm to the festive atmosphere. One standout stalls was Combucha Garden by Gopal Krishna Agarwal, startup promoting gut health through handcrafted probiotic founder of Maaji ke Haathon ka Achaar, Divya Singh, said, "During the pandemic, when the world came to a standstill, I found comfort in the kitchen with my mother. That's when 'Maaji ke Haathon ka Achaar' was born not just as a product, but as a memory preserved in every jar. Each flavour is inspired by recipes passed down through generations, made with love and a deep desire to bring the taste of 'ghar ka khana' back to people's lives. It's more than just achaar; it's nostalgia, resilience, and the warmth of home, bottled and shared with the world.""It's a daily dose of natural wellness. Our Combucha is brewed in small batches, with care and conscience, to support gut health while respecting the planet. Through our return-and-recycle model, we're not just nourishing bodies, but also building a sustainable future, one bottle at a time," said the founder of Combucha Garden, Gopal market also promoted Thalassemia Week, in collaboration with BloodConnect, reinforcing health and community care. A book swap station and participation from the Fridays for Future climate movement, led by Ashutosh Tiwari (Pan-India coordinator), brought attention to climate justice and youth music added festive cheer, while heartfelt tributes to mothers created an emotional touch. LFM continues its decade-long journey to support farmers, artisans and entrepreneurs while nurturing both Mother Earth and motherhood through sustainability and shared community values. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Mother's Day wishes , messages , and quotes !
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Weak turnout for Fridays for Future climate demos in Germany
Turnout was weaker than in the past during the Fridays for Future climate demonstrations at 47 locations in Germany on Friday. In Berlin, several hundred people rode their bicycles from the Socialist Party (SPD) headquarters to those of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. There were about 200 people protesting, according to police estimates. The two parties, along with the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), are expected to form Germany's next government. On the Schlossplatz in Dresden, participants drew attention to weather-related disasters in recent months with photos and headlines. People also took to the streets in Munich. Fridays for Future criticized the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD. "It's 2025, and there is still no concept for combating the climate crisis," Frieda Egeling of Fridays for Future Berlin said in a statement. She accused the future coalition partners of virtually abolishing Germany's climate targets. The organization is critical of the future government's gas supply plan. The CDU and SPD want to "use the potential of conventional domestic gas production" and count greenhouse gas savings abroad towards Germany's climate targets. In addition, the incoming coalition is sticking to the coal phase-out in 2038. The three-way coalition of SPD, Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, under SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz, had ideally wanted to bring this forward to 2030, but also decided not to set a binding target.
Japan Times
16-03-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Japan's youth climate activists still searching for a breakthrough
On the second Friday of every month, a small group gathers. In February, it was in front of the industry ministry's annex building, just a stone's throw away from the plum blossoms unfurling in pink and white at Tokyo's Hibiya Park. A small but passionate group of three dozen people — young and old alike — lifted a vibrant banner that read in Japanese: 'The Climate Crisis is a matter of life and death!' The group is Fridays for Future, a climate activist organization originally inspired by Greta Thunberg's 2018 school strike. They have branches in 20 regions across Japan, with the shared mission of raising Japanese voices in favor of tackling climate change. 'Delaying climate action is not a course of action available to us,' says Ayako Kawasaki, a recent college graduate and activist with Fridays for Future. 'We need to figure out a way to get more youth involved.' But by at least one key measure, Fridays for Future and groups like it are struggling to make their voices heard: last month, the government approved twin energy and emissions plans that experts say are insufficient to meet the globally agreed goal of trying to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Such struggles highlight the difficulty these groups have had in boosting climate education and localizing their messaging. They also raise the question of what exactly they can do to have a greater impact. Nonetheless, climate change has already arrived, impacting Japan in the form of record-breaking temperatures, more powerful typhoons and more besides. A survey published last year found that young people in Japan are worried: 87% believe that it is either 'very' or 'somewhat' important to respond to climate change. Ayako Kawasaki, an activist with Fridays for Future, speaks at a climate protest. | Boushu Tatsuya Despite those concerns, apathy is apparent. While similar youth-led climate protests around the world have seen thousands and even tens of thousands of marchers, climate demonstrations in Japan rarely break the 100-person barrier. Japan was the only country in that survey where over 10% of youth indicated that they didn't care about responding to climate change; in another, more than a third of 17- to 19-year-olds either didn't know or did not believe that greenhouse gas emissions caused climate change. 'The level of understanding of climate change among Japanese youth is generally limited,' says University of Tokyo researcher Kelvin Tang. 'Relatively few young people expressed a willingness to engage in political or activist-related climate actions.' Hard at work Kawasaki first became involved with Fridays for Future four years ago. A college course had reintroduced her to the climate crisis, and she realized the problem she had read about in her middle school textbooks wasn't anywhere near solved. In addition to Fridays for Future, she works with a number of other nongovernmental organizations and community initiatives, including the activist group Watashi no Mirai. She's also part of a youth-led climate lawsuit filed against thermal power companies for failing to stop greenhouse gas emissions. 'Our government is still trying to promote nuclear energy as a solution to climate change, which is very slow and very expensive. I feel that our government pretends to listen to youth, but really has no intention of addressing our concerns,' Kawasaki says, recalling how public comments on the 7th Strategic Energy Plan were largely ignored. People raise placards and hold a banner as they take part in a global climate protest, next to the United Nations University in Tokyo in September 2022. | Reuters Through Watashi no Mirai, which translates as "My Future," Kawasaki works to connect a wide variety of environmental NGOs to young people in order to spark youth involvement in a number of fields. While she feels that her own activism has a long way to go, Kawasaki noted several recent successes. These include an energetic protest in Tokyo's Shinjuku district organized in collaboration with pro-Palestinian activists last March, and an upcoming symposium in the city of Kyoto that will bring together activists from Taiwan and South Korea who successfully launched similar climate lawsuits in their own countries. Climate Youth Japan (CYJ) is another prominent organization led by young people. They focus on participating in policy sessions with government bodies, amplifying young people's voices on climate change and sending a youth delegation to the annual United Nations climate change conference. 'The presence of 'youth' is not a strong one in Japanese society,' says Yuki Wada from CYJ's youth empowerment division. 'In Europe, youth are recognized as stakeholders in society, and therefore have both influence and opportunities. But in Japan and Asia, there is a tendency for both adults and youth to overlook the importance of young people as a group.' Japan is far from lacking in smart thinkers on environmental issues in its next generation. Young activists include Mutsumi Kurobe, who works on innovative art projects, and leaders originally from abroad who have founded their own organizations to take environmental action, like Katrin Miyazawa in Nagoya. But complex factors converge to discourage mass participation in climate action and prevent these voices from being heard by the powers-that-be. What's stopping a genuine movement? The last time a youth-led activist movement effectively mobilized thousands and left its mark on the nation was about a decade ago. In 2015, angered by national security legislation that would allow Japanese forces to engage in acts of self-defense on behalf of allies, tens of thousands of young people protested across the country. The group SEALDs (Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy) spearheaded some of the largest popular protests in Japan since the student-led movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Shunichiro Kobayashi, who was involved with SEALDs as a translator for the group, explains that SEALDs made use of strong media relations and tapped into rhetorical tools like philosophy and pop music to energize the movement. 'SEALD's media effort as a whole palatably represented young people's increasing interest in politics,' explains Kobayashi, who is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Riverside. Members of Climate Youth Japan take part in a discussion during an overnight retreat. | Climate Youth Japan 'People in advanced capitalist countries like Japan and the United States live in a profound apathy,' Kobayashi says. 'In these countries, almost no movement has succeeded in winning transformative social change in the past few decades.' General apathy is compounded by issues of education and the challenges of building a movement. Tang has conducted research on junior high school student's awareness and understanding of climate change, identifying a wide variety of misconceptions and knowledge gaps — for example, that the depletion of the ozone layer is the primary cause of climate change. 'One of the primary reasons for these gaps is the lack of comprehensive climate change education in schools,' Tang says. 'The most critical step is to formally integrate climate education into Japan's national curriculum.' Unlike SEALDs, which energized a movement in response to the 2015 security bill, most climate groups in Japan lack a strong local angle. Instead, they tend to rely on the messaging of foreign activists like Thunberg or international frameworks like the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals. 'When people demonstrate or march, a lot of the chants and signs are written in English, which sometimes leaves me feeling uncomfortable,' Kawasaki reflects. 'There hasn't been an existing narrative of the climate crisis as a distinctly Japanese problem.' Kawasaki explains that most of the messaging heard in Japan about climate change is that it's a global problem, rather than a local one, and a problem solved not by political action but by personal action, such as by reducing water or electricity use. 'We need to emphasize the Japanese victims of climate change and the distinct local issues climate change poses to us here,' Kawasaki says. Opportunities to grow Reflecting on the legacy of SEALDs, Kobayashi says that beyond generating a sense of hope, it didn't manage to achieve many concrete goals. 'My fundamental critique of SEALDs is that it did not build an organization. It was meant to be a moment, not a movement,' he says. 'SEALDs was part of the landscape in which mere participation and sloganeering street protests are significantly appreciated even when the actions aren't leading to any palpable changes,' he says. '(This attitude) is harmful insofar as it reduces the motivation to discuss fundamental strategic matters.' School students march during a protest in Tokyo in March 2019. In a recent survey, more than a third of 17- to 19-year-olds said they either didn't know or did not believe that greenhouse gas emissions caused climate change. | Reuters Kobayashi thinks that in order for climate activists to win better climate policies, they need to focus on achieving specific policy goals, and come up with strategies aligned with them. Forging stronger partnerships with other groups is another path forward. Kawasaki notes that joint events she has participated in, such as those with anti-nuclear activists and pro-Palestinian activists, have been some of the most energizing. Anti-nuclear activists tend to be from an older generation, which can allow younger climate activists to learn from the successes and failures of the past. Next month, Kawasaki will start working at an anti-nuclear nonprofit organization, giving her a new vantage point from which to identify fresh collaborations. CYJ, meanwhile, sees the potential to grow through education. 'Some of the most impactful events I've seen are local ones that offer climate change workshops for children, such as Happy Earth Day in Osaka,' Wada says. 'Approaching the crisis through education is incredibly important.' As an organization, CYJ is focused less on mass demonstrations and more on what they call 'inside approaches,' working directly with government officials on climate policy solutions. 'We believe that small-scale group discussions and activities — not just on climate change, but on issues ranging from biodiversity to plastic pollution — can become a Japanese-style climate movement,' Wada says. CYJ, along with other groups like Fridays for Future and the Japan Youth Council, participated in subcommittee sessions for the 7th Strategic Energy Plan. But unlike their counterparts, CYJ feels that its participation was worthwhile, despite their proposals not ultimately making it into the plan. 'It was an experience where we really felt the importance of being able to engage in dialogue, in addition to having high-quality proposals,' Wada reflects. The fight against the climate crisis is a long and arduous one. Activists such as Kurobe have been open about the burnout they've experienced. 'There wasn't much evidence that (our activism) was generating interest or leading to action, much less changing society as a whole,' she told the Asahi Shimbun last summer. 'By the time I was in my second year of college, I was troubled and tired.' As a result, youth activists are still in search of some transformational spark — something to light a flame under the movement. As official policy advances at a slow pace, genuine change may have to come from someone and somewhere else. 'It's not just advancing climate measures,' Kawasaki says. 'We also have to take back democracy — to change our system to one where our voices are actually heard.'
