To anyone thinking about/ planning to take part in the Climate strikes, here is a letter you can give to your headteacher:
Letter aimed at secondary school headteacher
Dear Headteacher,
I give my permission for my child <name> to not attend school on Friday 15th February; in order to join the Youth Strike 4 Climate protest taking place across the UK on that day.
I’m aware of UK law that permits parents to only give permission for their child to miss school on medical grounds or in a few other cases, one of which is under “exceptional circumstances”.
My view is that having only 12 years left to cut CO2 emissions by 50%, as per the latest UN IPCC report, is pretty dire and exceptional circumstances to find ourselves in. And it in this light that I’m giving my child permission.
It is very disempowering and depressing for today’s children to hear the constant horrific news about the environment; such as:
- 200 species go extinct per day;
- a football pitch size of rainforest was destroyed each second in 2017 and is expected to accelerate under Bolsanaro.
- a rubbish truck load of plastic is dumped in the ocean every minute;
- since the first UN summit on climate in 1995 the global emissions have risen by 60% and continue to rise.
- devastating impacts of extreme weather are in the news on a daily basis
I hope attending this demonstration will help my child to feel empowered and able to stand up for what is right, and for a better future for herself.
I support her to attend the youth strike as part of active civic engagement, which is a core part of the curriculum. People under 18 years can’t vote, but with more of their life in the future, rather than the past, it’s they who are most affected by climate breakdown.
Many other forms of protest have had little impact on the status quo of burning more and more fossil fuels. Nothing like enough is being done by governments throughout the world, including our own UK government.
I respect her decision to attend this protest and I hope and expect you will support her too.
the best joke scp is the one where the scp itself is just typical mediocre normal scp fare (dark matter bracelet that kills people) but the joke is that the scientists behave like scp community members instead of actual scientists