I was at Greta’s speech in Bristol – she’s inspiring me and a generation of young climate activists

‘Activism works, so I’m telling you to act’ – these words from the Swedish teenager will stay with me and 30,000 other young people forever, writes Rachel Trippier

The crowd roared for her to come on to the stage, then fell pin-drop silent when she started to speak (Reuters)

Greta Thunberg’s name always prompts mixed reactions. For some, she is a hero; for others, a kid who should go back to school. As a climate-conscious teenager involved in my own school strike movement, I’m firmly in the first category.

I’ve been part of the Youth Strike movement – coordinated by the UK Student Climate Network and separate from Extinction Rebellion – for just under a year: it was Greta who inspired me.

Greta knew that she could make a change as an individual, and I found this incredibly motivating. Before she rightly gained recognition, Greta would strike weekly from school.

Her determination prompted me to join my local movement in Birmingham, where I have been jointly organising strikes and events ever since.

As soon as I heard Greta would be striking in Bristol, I knew I had to make the journey from university in Oxford to see her. It had only been two weeks since the last national climate strike in the UK, where I was part of the events team in Birmingham, but climate change isn’t showing any signs of stopping, so neither should we.

On the train down this weekend, I worried about how the protest would go. The carriage was packed with young people, signs at the ready, buzzing with energy. I had heard there might be 25,000 attendees; little did I know there would be many more.

My main concern was about how the police would react to the event. At the national school strike in London two weeks ago, the police behaved harshly with a number of young strikers. Friends of mine, some as young as 14, were shoved by police, others arrested for peacefully protesting. Now, Bristol police were saying they couldn’t guarantee protesters’ safety.

It worries me a lot that we have been flagged to law enforcement for demanding measures to protect our world. It was in that state of rage and passion that I attended the protest in Bristol.

I arrived early and the crowds were already huge. Chants such as “Whose future? Our future!” and “This is what democracy looks like!” had already broken out. The rain was coming down hard, leaving us in inches of mud, but the excitement saw us through. It was amazing to see so many people come together for the love of the planet. I’d travelled two hours to see Greta, but others had come from much further: Birmingham, or London, and I even spoke to a girl who had travelled from Durham.

It’s amazing that one girl can unite so many people. I learned later in the day that there had been in excess of 30,000 people. Whilst in the crowd you could truly not see the end of the sea of people. The march was still going more than two hours after it began. I don’t think I’ll experience anything as powerful as that protest for a long time.

As Greta’s speech drew nearer, trouble arose among the protesters. I heard shouts for medics from deep in the crowd and saw a number of young people dragged out, one on a stretcher. I had heard one had fainted from standing for so long but I can’t be sure about the others. The rain was torrential by this point, but it didn’t matter – at last, the big moment had arrived.

The crowd roared for Greta to come on to the stage, then fell pin-drop silent when she started to speak. Suddenly, it struck me how incredible it was that Greta had brought tens of thousands of young people out onto the Bristol streets, and had awoken a generation of climate activists.

It was these words of hers that I’ll take with me: “Activism works, so I’m telling you to act.”

Today’s action, and the love and rage it generated, will keep me motivated to continue my climate activism, however much the rain pours.

Rachel Trippier is a climate activist working within Birmingham Youth Strike for Climate alongside studying at university