Climate activists take global protest online during pandemic

Youth groups are staging a long-planned global climate demonstration online Friday because of restrictions on public protests during the coronavirus pandemic. The student group Fridays for Future, whose past rallies have drawn hundreds of thousands onto the streets worldwide, is using a Livestream to call on world leaders to act against global warming.

Some groups have found creative ways to stage very limited demonstrations despite the lockdown. In Berlin, activists placed thousands of protest placards in front of the German parliament. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 17, the most prominent face of the youth climate movement, said Wednesday during an online Earth Day event that the climate crisis "may not be as immediate as the corona crisis but we need to tackle this now, otherwise, it will be irreversible."