Young people across the world have taken to the streets to demand action on the climate crisis, motivated by gloomy reports from prestigious bodies of climate scientists warning that the world needs to drastically cut its emissions in order to have any semblance of a livable future.

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Part 1: The United States

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In the US, activists say they have to start at the basics before getting to what should be done about the climate crisis. “In America, we have this unique problem: People talk about climate change as something that’s real or not, rather than what we should do about it,” 17-year old Madeline Graham, who strikes in Washington D.C., said in a phone interview last fall.

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The movement takes on an intersectional form in the US, with activists trying to highlight social justice issues, including indigenous land rights and injustices the climate crisis creates. Unlike Western societies, indigenous groups have lived in “harmony with nature,” Graham said, making it imperative that the government fulfill territorial promises it made in 370 treaties with indigenous nations — all of which the U.S. government has broken. They also point to social injustices inherent in the climate crisis: Already marginalized communities are hit hardest by the effects of the climate crisis even though they did least to cause it.

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Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down regulations controlling corporation and labor union spending in 2010, which activists blame for lack of action on combating the climate crisis.

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“Politicians are being bought off like pots of land,” 17-year-old Jerome Foster said in an interview on the sidelines of a D.C. climate strike last September. “If we just look through the swamp and look through dirty water, you’ll see all the money that’s hiding at the bottom. There’s no debating it.”

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To maintain a broad appeal, US activists try to stay as nonpartisan as possible. Nonpartisan but not apolitical, Graham emphasized.

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“We will call out any individual politician that refuses to take action, regardless of party,” she said. “Anyone that refuses to take climate action is subject to the wrath of the people.”

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Part 2: Argentina

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In Argentina, activists also emphasize indigenous issues. Fridays for Future Argentina partners with indigenous organizations to fight against racism and discrimination. The movement also addresses issues like extractivism, where countries’ natural resources are exploited to be sold on the world market, deforestation for land cultivation, and livestock farming, 20-year-old Hulien Auzza said.

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“Fridays for Future wants to join the intersectional fight that native people have been fighting for more than 500 years,” Auzza, who strikes in Buenos Aires, said via WhatsApp. “We want to make clear that we know they are the ones struggling the most with the consequences of colonialism, capitalism, and extractivism, and we want to use our privilege to help in every way we are allowed to.”

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Auzza, while of indigenous descent, said she does not live in indigenous territory and so does not suffer the same consequences of the climate crisis as other indigenous people do. For her, indigenous issues are abstract.

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Awareness about the climate crisis in Argentina is generally nonexistent, according to Auzza, despite its status as a progressive country. Most believe climate change to be a far-off issue happening in other countries, so Fridays for Future Argentina tries to raise awareness about the climate crisis and the accompanying racial justice issues.

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Part 3: Germany

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One would be forgiven for thinking that Germany is at the forefront of climate movement: In the last elections, even the extremely conservative Christian Social Union party went on a climate offensive, adopting some of the Green Party’s priorities.

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While Germany’s politicians talk of being green, though, the country let an unprecedented amount of SUVs onto its road in the last year, and will miss its 2020 goals for reducing emissions by a long shot. Activists recognize the irony.

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“There’s just so much that goes wrong here,” said Adrian Paxmann, a 22-year-old climate organizer at a strike in Bergisch Gladbach, a western German town. He pointed to Germany’s large emission output and said that Germany has a green mindset, but acknowledged the difficulty of translating that mindset into everyday life.

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Fridays for Future Germany tries to distance itself from political parties, Paxmann said, but that it is difficult because Fridays for Future is not apolitical.

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Fridays for Future Germany has declared sympathy for the Antifa movement, a loose movement of leftists seeking to counter facism — including with violence — and the Kurds in Syria. Citing that decision, German activist Helen Lucy said that she would like to see the movement distance itself more from politics. Lucy, who is 18, said the decisions were unfortunate because it portrayed Fridays for Future as partisan, opening it to attacks.

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Part 4: Africa

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The African continent will be one of the regions hardest hit by the climate crisis, yet many Africans are not concerned about the climate crisis, activists say.

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“Here, people are used to dumping their waste on the ground because they were educated in this way and because the government doesn’t implement ecological strategies,” Maureen Damen, a 16-year-old climate activist in Senegal said via WhatsApp. “They don’t feel alarmed by the climate crisis even though they know it’s abnormally hot or cold today.”

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“Izinto zabelungu lezi,” they say. That Zulu expression indicates that climate change is just a concern for white people and therefore not important. 18-year-old South African activist Bianca Kgantitswe called this “illogical” because Africa will be hit among the hardest by the crisis.

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“It’s as if they want to convince themselves that it’s not any of their concern,” she said.

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Activists across the world demand action to save the Congo Rainforest, the second-largest rainforest in the world behind the Amazon, including 21-year-old activist Nyombi Morris. Congo has been called the world’s second lung, after the Amazon. Despite its vital importance, it has not gotten the same attention as the Amazon Rainforest fires. Morris, who strikes in Uganda, pointed to the exploitation of the forest as a reason for the lack of attention, demanding a ban on mining in the forest from the government.

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Many climate activists in South Africa advocate for land redistribution back to the black majority population. Ever since Dutch colonization, land has been concentrated in the hands of very few white people. The South Africans are largely split on the issue by race, with almost 80% of black South Africans, including Kgantitswe, supporting the measure, and less than 20% of whites in favor. Smith feels caught in the middle of the controversy, since he is biracial, he said.

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“Someone can be against the land issue and find themselves fighting for the protection of the environment. Those are two separate and valid issues and opinions anyone can have.” Kgantitswe said.

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In some places in Africa, political activism can be risky, including in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This hampers protests, activists say. In Kenya, police have “harassed” protesters at rallies, so many do not dare protest, 17-year-old Eric Damien Njuguna said. In The Republic of Congo, government officials and security forces have used excessive and unwarranted violence against pro-democracy protests, according to Human Rights Watch, which prevents many protests from happening.

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Part 5: India and Israel

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As in Africa and many other parts of the world, it is a challenge to get people to care about the climate crisis in India, said 21-year-old activist Disha Ravi, even though the climate crisis is already knocking at its door.

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The southern Indian city of Bangalore, where Ravi lives, has been called “India’s Silicon Valley” and has seen a rapid and alarming decrease in the amount of groundwater available due to over-exploitation of the natural resources and is hurtling towards a water crisis — which will only be exacerbated by the climate crisis. Bangalore is already among the most polluted parts of India and is already above the World Health Organization’s guidelines for air pollution — and is only going to get worse, forecasts say.

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It will hurt the people in the slums the most, but even they are largely apathetic, Ravi said. Activists try to fight back against that by amplifying voices from the slums and fighting for issues more immediately relevant to them. The issues the climate activists address depend heavily on the region, but all are focused on the preservation of natural resources, which are becoming a scarcity.

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The government is not making things easier, though. According to activists, the government is much more focused on building a Hindu ethnostate, repressing dissent, and taking away indigenous lands than fighting the climate crisis. Indian society has become even more polarized due to the Indian government’s amendment of the Citizenship Amendment Act, which would fast-track citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Buddhists, and Christians — but not Muslims — from three surrounding countries. While Fridays for Future India has not taken an official stance, many activists have supported the protests against the law.

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Israel is a similarly polarized society. Activists there try to rise above the partisanship and fight for action on the climate crisis. It is largely an nonpartisan movement, 15-year-old activist Lily Mackey said. Activists avoid taking a stand on hot-button issues like Palestinian land rights and emphasize that all are welcome to join the movement, no matter their religion.

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Neither of the two leading parties, the HaLikud party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, nor the Kahol Lavan, led by Benny Gantz, addressed the climate crisis during their campaigns in any meaningful way, Mackey said.

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Like elsewhere, activists see the climate crisis issue as transcending party lines, but Mackey acknowledged that in practice there is very little concern about the issue, both in politics and among the general population. Fridays for Future tries to fight against that by protesting, lecturing, and even suing the country.

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The movement is slowly gaining steam, Mackey said, with more people joining the strikes.

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Despite regional differences, activists from the US, Argentina, Germany, Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, India, and Israel are united in fighting the climate crisis and fighting for their futures, as US activist Madeline Graham put it.

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“One day, I would like to be able to look my children in the eyes and tell them that everything is going to be okay, and mean it.”.

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Despite regional differences, activists from the US, Argentina, Germany, Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, India, and Israel are united in fighting the climate crisis and fighting for their futures, as US activist Madeline Graham put it.

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“One day, I would like to be able to look my children in the eyes and tell them that everything is going to be okay, and mean it,” she said.