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Environment

Climate crisis slogans with punch

Protest slogans have marked green campaigns since "Give Earth a Chance" banners flew at the first Earth Day march in 1970. As climate crisis protests have intensified, some powerful phrases are driving the movement.

  • Swedish 15-year-old girl Greta Thunberg holds a placard reading School strike for the climate outside the Swedish parliament (picture-alliance/DPR/H. Franzen)

    'School strike for the climate'

    This now iconic image of Greta Thunberg holding a placard reading "School strike for the climate" was taken outside the Swedish parliament on a Friday in November 2018. Just 15 at the time, Thunberg and her action have since led to the emergence of "Fridays for Future," a global climate crisis movement that has attracted millions of young people around the world.

  • A simple sign that reads #MeToo said Mother Earth

    'MeToo said Mother Earth'

    This slogan, seen in Berlin at an anti-coal rally in 2017, links the #MeToo hashtag that represents sexual harassment and abuse of women with the abuse of Mother Earth and the planet's natural environment. It was created by activists gathered in the German capital to demand an end to power plants fueled by coal, the world's most carbon-heavy, climate change-inducing fossil fuel.

  • Climate crisis activists block traffic in the London financial district with banners reading Climate Emergency and We Can't Eat Money

    'We can't eat money'

    Climate crisis activists blocked traffic in the London financial district during environmental protests by the Extinction Rebellion campaign in April 2019. In addition to signs reiterating the climate emergency, "We can't eat money" has become a popular slogan for Extinction Rebellion, which correlates unfettered capitalism and climate change.

  • Environmental activists march together in direction of the Hambach open-pit coal mine carrying a sign reading Burn Borders, Patriarchy, Racism, Antisemitism, Homophobia, Capitalism, Not Coal (picture-alliance/dpa/D. Young)

    'Burn borders...not coal'

    In October last year, activists marched together in the direction of the Hambach open-pit coal mine in Germany's Rhineland region, where coal mining threatens a pristine forest. Despite Berlin agreeing to phase out coal by 2038, this protest banner linked the core anti-coal message with a broader political, social and economic meaning.

  • Students take part in a protest against climate change in Hong Kong on March 15, 2019, as part of a global movement called #FridaysForFuture.

    'If you don't act like adults, we will'

    As schoolchildren have taken to the streets to fight the climate crisis across the world, an ever-growing range of slogans have peppered the demonstrations. At this March 15 "Fridays for Future" protest in Hong Kong, one student (far right) summed up how the irresponsibility of older generations has forced them to take action.

  • Students in Cape Town, South Africa take part in the global March 15, 2019 Fridays for Future protest

    'Denial is not a policy'

    Students in Cape Town, South Africa also took part in the global March 15 protest — one of some 200 around the world — as part of a worldwide student strike against government inaction on climate change. In addition to holding up placards against ongoing climate change denial, the students chanted slogans such as "Stop denying! Our earth is dying."

  • Youths show their hands bearing the inscriptions Our future in your hands

    'Our future in your hands'

    When 25,000 people turned up in Berlin to protest at a rally earlier this year, the streets were flooded with placard-waving school strikers who also carried messages on their bodies. These campaigners coupled stickers on their foreheads — one reads "Warning Warming" — with coordinated hand slogans reading "Our future in your hands."

  • A banner at a protest reads There are Co2nsequences

    'There are Co2nsequences'

    As the "Fridays for Future" protests moved to Aachen near the German-Belgian border in late June, one banner highlighted the inevitable repercussions of burning carbon dioxide at a time when atmospheric carbon levels have reached their highest point in recorded human history.

  • A protester in Hamburg hold up a sign reading There is no planet B

    'There is no planet B'

    This popular rallying slogan for climate activists was popularized by, among others, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who stated at a 2014 climate summit in New York that "There is no plan B because we do not have planet B." The slogan is also the title of a 2019 book by author Mike Berners-Lee that illustrates how humanity can sustainably "thrive on this — our only — planet."

  • A banner reading March now or swim later held up in a protest demanding for urgent measures to combat climate change, in Hamburg, Germany, March 1, 2019

    'March now or swim later'

    The founder of the school strike protests, Greta Thunberg, joined a demo in Hamburg on March 1, just a few weeks after she told business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos: "I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day and then I want you to act." This slogan at the Hamburg rally embodies the movement's calls for urgent action.


  • Swedish 15-year-old girl Greta Thunberg holds a placard reading School strike for the climate outside the Swedish parliament (picture-alliance/DPR/H. Franzen)

    'School strike for the climate'

    This now iconic image of Greta Thunberg holding a placard reading "School strike for the climate" was taken outside the Swedish parliament on a Friday in November 2018. Just 15 at the time, Thunberg and her action have since led to the emergence of "Fridays for Future," a global climate crisis movement that has attracted millions of young people around the world.

  • A simple sign that reads #MeToo said Mother Earth

    'MeToo said Mother Earth'

    This slogan, seen in Berlin at an anti-coal rally in 2017, links the #MeToo hashtag that represents sexual harassment and abuse of women with the abuse of Mother Earth and the planet's natural environment. It was created by activists gathered in the German capital to demand an end to power plants fueled by coal, the world's most carbon-heavy, climate change-inducing fossil fuel.

  • Climate crisis activists block traffic in the London financial district with banners reading Climate Emergency and We Can't Eat Money

    'We can't eat money'

    Climate crisis activists blocked traffic in the London financial district during environmental protests by the Extinction Rebellion campaign in April 2019. In addition to signs reiterating the climate emergency, "We can't eat money" has become a popular slogan for Extinction Rebellion, which correlates unfettered capitalism and climate change.

  • Environmental activists march together in direction of the Hambach open-pit coal mine carrying a sign reading Burn Borders, Patriarchy, Racism, Antisemitism, Homophobia, Capitalism, Not Coal (picture-alliance/dpa/D. Young)

    'Burn borders...not coal'

    In October last year, activists marched together in the direction of the Hambach open-pit coal mine in Germany's Rhineland region, where coal mining threatens a pristine forest. Despite Berlin agreeing to phase out coal by 2038, this protest banner linked the core anti-coal message with a broader political, social and economic meaning.

  • Students take part in a protest against climate change in Hong Kong on March 15, 2019, as part of a global movement called #FridaysForFuture.

    'If you don't act like adults, we will'

    As schoolchildren have taken to the streets to fight the climate crisis across the world, an ever-growing range of slogans have peppered the demonstrations. At this March 15 "Fridays for Future" protest in Hong Kong, one student (far right) summed up how the irresponsibility of older generations has forced them to take action.

  • Students in Cape Town, South Africa take part in the global March 15, 2019 Fridays for Future protest

    'Denial is not a policy'

    Students in Cape Town, South Africa also took part in the global March 15 protest — one of some 200 around the world — as part of a worldwide student strike against government inaction on climate change. In addition to holding up placards against ongoing climate change denial, the students chanted slogans such as "Stop denying! Our earth is dying."

  • Youths show their hands bearing the inscriptions Our future in your hands

    'Our future in your hands'

    When 25,000 people turned up in Berlin to protest at a rally earlier this year, the streets were flooded with placard-waving school strikers who also carried messages on their bodies. These campaigners coupled stickers on their foreheads — one reads "Warning Warming" — with coordinated hand slogans reading "Our future in your hands."

  • A banner at a protest reads There are Co2nsequences

    'There are Co2nsequences'

    As the "Fridays for Future" protests moved to Aachen near the German-Belgian border in late June, one banner highlighted the inevitable repercussions of burning carbon dioxide at a time when atmospheric carbon levels have reached their highest point in recorded human history.

  • A protester in Hamburg hold up a sign reading There is no planet B

    'There is no planet B'

    This popular rallying slogan for climate activists was popularized by, among others, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who stated at a 2014 climate summit in New York that "There is no plan B because we do not have planet B." The slogan is also the title of a 2019 book by author Mike Berners-Lee that illustrates how humanity can sustainably "thrive on this — our only — planet."

  • A banner reading March now or swim later held up in a protest demanding for urgent measures to combat climate change, in Hamburg, Germany, March 1, 2019

    'March now or swim later'

    The founder of the school strike protests, Greta Thunberg, joined a demo in Hamburg on March 1, just a few weeks after she told business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos: "I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day and then I want you to act." This slogan at the Hamburg rally embodies the movement's calls for urgent action.


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