NEW YORK -- Activists geared up Friday for protests around the world to demand action on climate change just as a pair of major weeklong climate events were getting underway in New York City.The planned actions in Berlin, Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, New Delhi and many other cities were being organized by the youth-led group Fridays for Future, and included the group's New York chapter, which planned a march across the Brooklyn Bridge followed by a rally that organizers hoped would attract at least 1,000 people.More protests were planned Saturday and Sunday.New York is hosting Climate Week NYC, an annual event that promotes climate action, at the same time the U.N.
General Assembly takes up the issue on several fronts, including raising trillions of dollars to aid poorer countries suffering the most from climate change.The New York protest was to take aim at “the pillars of fossil fuels” — companies that pollute, banks that fund them, and leaders who are failing on climate, said Helen Mancini, an organizer and a senior at the city's Stuyvesant High School.Youth climate protests started in August 2018 when Greta Thunberg, then an unknown 15-year-old, left school to stage a sit-down strike outside of the Swedish parliament to demand climate action and end fossil fuel use.In the six years since Thunberg founded what became Fridays for Future, global carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels has increased by about 2.15%, according to Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists who monitor carbon pollution.The growth of emissions has slowed compared to previous decades and experts anticipate peaking soon, which is a far cry from the 43% reduction needed to keep temperature increases to an agreed-upon limit.Since 2019, carbon dioxide emissions from coal have increased by nearly 1 billion tons (900 million metric tons), while natural gas emissions have increased slightly and oil pollution has dropped a tiny amount, according to the International Energ...