Friends,

Stop what you’re doing for a second, and breathe. Take a deep breath. 20% of the oxygen you just inhaled was produced by the Amazon rainforest, and it is on fire.

One of the Earth’s most precious rainforests is on fire, and so much of it is burning that the sun was blotted out by smoke in a city 2,300 kilometres away. Breathe.

The Amazon absorbs over 2 billion tonnes of carbon annually, helping to slow down the dangerous climate change that our mining and burning of fossil fuels is fuelling. 

But now as it burns, the Amazon is releasing that carbon into the atmosphere, devastating local ecosystems, killing wildlife and adding more heat trapping gas to our already struggling climate. 

The Amazon is burning, but we can stop our future burning with it. Join us on September 20 to grow our climate justice movement, because we need everyone to turn the climate crisis around.

The Amazon wildfire is another mark on the path of climate change. The rate of fires occurring in the irreplaceable Amazonian basin has almost doubled since 2018. Already, 2019 has the highest number of fires ever recorded.

Tragedies like this make our job fighting for climate justice so much harder, but they also remind us of what’s at stake. 

On September 20th, we are going to take to the streets for the biggest #ClimateStrike ever. Join us to show those who would deny us a future, those who would set the Amazon on fire that we won’t stand for this injustice. It’s our future, and we’re going to fight for it.

Let the Amazon and every climate impact from hereon in be the lessons that teach our politicians to act now, before it’s too late.

With hope,

The School Strikers for Climate.