Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

The broader importance of #FridaysForFuture

Nature Climate Change volume 9, pages 430–431 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

The #FridaysForFuture campaign has prompted unprecedented numbers of youth to join the climate movement around the world. This growing movement is important beyond its potential impact on climate policy because it is creating a cohort of citizens who will be active participants in democracy.

The goal of #FridaysforFuture is for young people to compel their governments to take meaningful political action to address climate change. It builds on a range of tactics — such as sit-ins, walkouts, strikes and die-ins — that have been used by social movements for decades (for an overview, see ref. 4). It also builds on the momentum of the broader climate movement, which has coordinated protests and activism around the world since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was drafted at the so-called Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero in 1992 (refs. 5,6,7). Although youth have played a limited role in previous climate activism, with the advent of these climate strikes, they have joined the climate movement en masse. With young people around the world repeatedly walking out of school to protest the slow pace of climate policymaking, we must recognize that the importance of these days of action is the action itself.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Warren, M. Nature 567, 291 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hagedorn, G. et al. Science 364, 139–140 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Corner, A. et al. WIRES Clim. Change 6, 523–534 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Wang, D. J. & Soule, S. A. Am. Soc. Rev. 81, 517–548 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Hadden, J. Glob. Environ. Polit. 14, 7–25 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Fisher, D. R. Glob. Environ. Polit. 10, 11–17 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Wahlström, M., Wennerhag, M. & Rootes, C. Glob. Environ. Polit. 13, 101–122 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Verba, S., Schlozman, K. L. & Brady, H. E. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Harvard Univ. Press, 1995).

  9. Earl, J., Maher, T. V. & Elliott, T. Sociol. Compass 11, e12465 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Fisher, D. R. Ann. Rev. Sociol. 38, 119–137 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Henn, M. & Hart, J. The School of Social Sciences Magazine. 10–11 (Nottingham Trent Univ., 2017).

  12. Elliott, T. & Earl, J. Soc. Media Soc. 4, 2056305117750722 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Harris, A., Wyn, J. & Younes, S. YOUNG 18, 9–32 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Oesterle, S., Johnson, M. K. & Mortimer, J. T. Soc. Forces 82, 1123–1149 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. McAdam, D. Am. Sociol. Rev. 54, 744–760 (1989).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Giugni, M. G. in The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (eds Snow, D. A. et al) 489–507 (Wiley, 2007)

  17. Yates, M. & J. Youniss, J. (eds) Roots of Civic Identity: International Perspectives on Community Service and Activism in Youth (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006).

  18. Watts, J. Greta Thunberg, schoolgirl climate change warrior: ‘Some people can let things go. I can’t.’ The Guardian (11 March 2019).

  19. Bloemraad, I. & Trost, C. Am. Behav. Sci. 52, 507–532 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Klandermans, B. & Oegema, D. Am. Sociol. Rev. 52, 519–531 (1987).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Fisher, D. R. American Resistance (Columbia Univ. Press, 2020).

  22. González-Bailón, S., Borge-Holthoefer, J., Rivero, A. & Moreno, Y. Sci. Rep. 1, 197 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Dana R. Fisher

Authors
  1. Dana R. Fisher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dana R. Fisher.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fisher, D.R. The broader importance of #FridaysForFuture. Nat. Clim. Chang. 9, 430–431 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0484-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0484-y

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing