Swedish activist leads climate change strike in Rome
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16-year-old Swedish climate change activist, Greta Thunberg (C) speaks during the Fridays For Future rally in Piazza del Popolo in Rome on April 19, 2019
"Rome: Thousands of young Italians spent Friday with Sweden's teen climate change activist, Greta Thunberg, who warned them that her generation's struggle for a sustainable future will go on for years.
Thunberg and her supporters took to Rome's Piazza del Popolo (People's Square), where they joined a strike aimed at securing action from politicians in order to take measures to counteract climate change.
According to the police, the 16-year-old activist gathered 3,500 young people in Rome, while Thunberg said on Twitter that over 20,000 people had turned out for the action, Efe news reported.
During the gathering she lamented that "nothing" has changed on a political level since she embarked on her protest six months ago and that greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow.
She said nothing is being done and young people had to be prepared to fight for a long time, warning that it would take years.
She also urged those gathered for the rally to continue striking on Fridays.
The student activist began her weekly protest dubbed "School strike for the climate" outside the Swedish Parliament in August 2018.
By November, her protest had grown into a wider movement, with schoolchildren all over the world ditching classes to call for action to save the planet.