Tearing Down the World to Save It: The Kids at the Climate Strike

Photographer Daniel Arnold didn't set out to shoot the New York City climate strike on Friday, 20 September. But the strike, which drew out an estimated 60,000 people to Foley Square and its environs, created its own weather. He was quickly drawn into its eddies and rhythms, and before long, he was truly in its midst. Notable among its attendees were large numbers of children and teens—unsurprising given the many young leaders, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who have organized and taken their place at the frontlines of these protests. Arnold captured the irrepressible spirit and determination of these protesters for Replica Hermes Bag Reviews; below, he reflects on the emotion, atmosphere, and personalities of Friday's strike:

I came through the subway turnstile about 15 steps ahead of a whole class of, maybe, sixth-graders toting signs and tentatively whooping it up, like they weren't sure yet how enthusiastic it was cool to be. I was pretty far out in Brooklyn, and at every stop a new swarm of protest kids got on, locked eyes with the last stop’s gang, and both sides broke into big goofy irrepressible smiles. It was cool to be enthusiastic.

I saw that big smile exchange once and wrote off the rest of my day, decided I had to spend as much time with these people as possible. Not long after that I heard from Vogue, with a proper assignment; I was already in it to the elbows and easily agreed to spend the rest of my day huffing fumes off a whole city of kids ditching school to stomp down the middle of Broadway and cuss the adult world. The collision of that fuck-you, skip-school energy with newly dire messaging—“We’ll die of old age,” the parents shouted, “our children will go extinct”—was totally intoxicating and I spent most of the day on the edge of tears. It was also incredible to see the all-ages electricity that Greta Thunberg inspired: all of Battery Park holding its breath on tiptoes, waiting for their next cue to scream along. Her U.N. address was a resounding twist of that knife.

It would be wild if they could actually make something happen. Though it feels like they'd have to tear down the world to save it.