THESCHOOL
YOUTH STRIKERScarlettWestbrook, 15, is a
member of the UK Student
Climate Network and
Birmingham Youth
Strike 4 Climate groupI took an A-level in politics
aged 13.I’d been reading the news
since I was ten and I was bored due to
an injury, which left me on crutches
for four months. I asked my school’s
deputy head if I could sit the A-level,
but she just laughed, so when I told
my mum, she said, ‘Fine, but you sort
it out.’ I emailed the exam board
asking if I could do it the following
year and they told me to find an
exam centre. I taught myself using
textbooks, revision guides and
online resources, as I didn’t really
know how to find a tutor.
One part of the course was called
‘ideologies in action’, about how
climate change is being treated by
various politicians. One example
that really struck me was when, in
2006, David Cameron, who was then
leader of the Conservative Party,
said he wanted a green revolution.
But in 2013, as Prime Minister, he
allegedly said, ‘We have to get rid of
all this green crap.’ (No 10 later said
it did not ‘recognise’ the phrase.)
He scrapped the plan to make
new-build homes zero carbon,
the UK wasn’t meeting our Paris
Agreement [a global action to plan to
reduce carbon emissions] targets,andwe were failing everything. The
onlything he changed was his Tory
Party logo to a tree symbol. We’ve
known for decades about the climate
emergency and nothing is being
done.I thought, ‘This is awful; this
is a disaster.’
When the UK Student Climate
Network was founded last January,
I joined. We’re the people behind the
school climate protest strikes, and
I’m the community engagement
coordinatoralongside my friend Isla.
I’m also a prominent member of
Birmingham Youth Strike 4 Climate.
It’s easy to label climate activism
as something only white middle-
class people do, but we don’t want
thatimage because climate change
doesn’t discriminate; everyone is
going to be affected, and minority
communities will be affected most.
We’veorganised talks at churches,
synagogues and mosques across
Birmingham to get people – adults
and children – involved in our strikes.
We’re doing nothing illegal, we’re
just a group of kids with lots of
cardboard signs. My school does give
usthe time off to strike, but you have
to fill in a form and parents are
called. The school has also been
supportive when I’ve had to take
days off to meet with politicians in
Parliament. I can catch up on school
work, but I can’t catch up on the
damage done to the Earth.
So far, we’ve talked to Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn about the
Green New Deal, and Caroline Lucasofthe Green Party, who was great.
Weplan to meet with Jo Swinson now
she’s leader of the Lib Dems, and the
Conservatives have yet to attend
a meeting with us.
We’re moving very slowly and
that’s really worrying. Young people
understand what’s at stake because
we know what our future is going to
be like. Older people were told about
climate change many years ago and
they didn’t do anything about it,
which is very frustrating. The future
is really concerning.
The most impressive person I’ve
met is [teenage environmental
activist]Greta Thunberg. When she
cameto the UK as she set sail for the
US to speak at the UN in New York,
I interviewed her for the UK Student
Climate Network. She was so lovely
and humble. I just started fangirling
her, saying: ‘You’re so amazing!’
Shereplied, ‘No, you are.’
I asked her how she feels standing
up to older, powerful people, and she
said she doesn’t really take notice of
them because they are scared that
our message is getting through and
they feel threatened by that. That
really resonated with me.
She seemed so wise; it just
radiated off her, but she was also
good fun. At one point we asked her
to speak directly into the camera.
Gretacaught my eye and we just got
the giggles and couldn’t stop
laughing.We had to do four takes.
Theysay never meet your heroes, but
I think I love her even more now.
MeetingGreta has given me a renewed
sense of hope.n
Scarlettwith Labour MP
Ed Miliband at London
Climate Action Week in
July. Left: Birmingham
Youth Strike 4 ChangePHOTOGRAPHS BY GETTY IMAGES, NELSON BONNER, ALEXANDER ANDREWS, ANNIE SPRATT, HUGO SOUSA,IMELDA, JUHA LAKANIEMI, KELLY SIKKEMA, LEA FABIENNE, MATT HOFFMAN, PADDY O’SULLIVAN, PATRICK HENDRY, RICARDO GOMEZ, SACHA GIRARDI, SARA KURFESS, VLAD TCHOMPALOV/UNSPLASH
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