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"Climate strike" was declared the Word of the Year for 2019 by the Scotland-based Collins dictionary. "'Climate strike', a form of protest that took off just over one year ago with the actions of Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg and which has grown to become a worldwide movement, has been named Collins' Word of the Year 2019," the dictionary announced on its website. Climate strikes have become so frequent in large parts of the world that the word's usage increased hundredfold in 2019, said the dictionary. Its lexicographers observed that the word recorded a fourfold increase over the last six years with stories and images. Climate strike is defined in the Collins dictionary as "a form of protest in which people absent themselves from education or work in order to join demonstrations demanding action to counter climate change." Sixteen-year-old climate activist Thunberg was first known for her "skolstrejk för klimatet," or school strike for climate, protests in August 2018 outside the Swedish Parliament. Thunberg's "Fridays for Future" protests, which began in her native country Sweden but since have become a global phenomenon, have sought to bring world governments into full compliance with the Paris Climate Accord. More than 6,100 events were held in 185 countries – with the support of 73 trade unions, 820 civil society organizations, 3,000 companies and 8,500 websites – on the Global Climate Strike on Sept. 20, which was recorded as the biggest-ever climate mobilization with the participation of 7.6 million people. |
