LAUSANNE
As many as 50,000 protest climate change in Switzerland
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday in several Swiss cities against climate change, the Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS reported.
Published: 7 April 2019 10:10 CEST
A woman holds a plaque reading 'the earth is weeping and they laugh'. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
Around 50,000 marched in all, the news agency report estimated, including 15,000 in Zurich and up to nine thousand in the capital Berne and in Lausanne.
Protesters marching in Lausanne on Saturday. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
“It's about knowing if finally we want to listen to the voice of science,” high school student Jan Burckhardt told ATS. “Save the climate please: it's the last time we ask politely,” read one of the placards at the Lausanne demonstration, an AFP photographer saw.
A protester holds a sign saying 'Easyjet you screw up the planet'. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
The marches were organised by an alliance of activist groups in Switzerland, including Greenpeace, Swiss Youth for Climate and green groups.
“We don't want to stop our movement as long as our claims have not been heard, as long as we have not obtained concrete results,” said Laurane Conod, one of the organisers of a smaller march in Geneva.
The climate change protests in Switzerland were in part inspired by the teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who started weekly school strikes calling for policy change on the climate issue.
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