Climate change strikes began on Tuesday, September 17, 2019 in 139 different countries. Student and humanitarian groups along with company and environmental employees have stepped up to protest against climate change.

On Friday, September 20, protest began on the East Coast. In Washington, D.C. many students skipped school to march on John Marshall Park. Protesters and students, some as young as elementary school, held up banners and chanted, “This is what democracy looks like,” according to CNN. 

Strikers appeared in Pennsylvania, too, at Philadelphia’s City Hall.

North Philadelphia High School students will be marked absent for attending the march, but say that it is worth missing one day of school to spread the word of climate change, reported The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

The flames of this movement was sparked by Greta Thunberg. 

Thunberg, a 16 year old girl from Sweden, led a youth climate strike across 150 countries with 2,500 events scheduled. Her activism has earned her a nomination her for the Nobel Peace Prize.

On September 13, Thunberg joined campaigners in Washington D.C. to lead the Global Climate Strike on September 20. The campaign is  projected to be one of the largest environmental protests in history, according to Vox.