Hong Kong boy stages solo Friday climate protests at school gates, inspired by Greta Thunberg

Lance Lau, 10, began solo protests at his Kowloon school’s gates every Friday to press case for action to reduce the greenhouse gases that cause global warming

Teachers and fellow students applaud his campaign, which also includes beach clean-ups, making cleaning fluid at home in Tung Chung, and handing out cupcakes

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Lance Lau Hin-yi protests outside his school in Hong Kong before class last Friday. Only 10 years old, he is passionate about saving the environment. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 7:15am, 13 Dec 2019Updated: 7:39am, 13 Dec 2019

Lance Lau Hin-yi is 10 years old, 1.48 metres (4ft 10in) tall, and gazes at the world through owlish glasses.

When you look at him, the term “climate activist” does not immediately spring to mind. Yet since September, Lance has been conducting a solo protest at school in Hong Kong every Friday to draw attention to issues harmful to the environment.

Sidestepping two pet cats in the living room of his family’s home in Tung Chung, on Lantau Island near Hong Kong’s international airport, Lance picks up the protest placard he drew and, with a broad grin, brandishes it high above his head., His voice rising an octave, he says: “People need to get to the recycling bins now or die.”

“Too much greenhouse gas is being released into the atmosphere, from factories, aeroplanes, cars, motorcycles, basically anything that is related to burning fossil fuels. We have to call a halt [to it],” he says.

Greta Thunberg at an event during the UN Climate Change Conference. Photo: DPA

Lance’s campaign, inspired by the Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg – who launched the #FridaysForFuture movement in 2018 by staging a school strike every Friday to protest outside the Swedish parliament – was initially met with ridicule by some of his fellow students at Ying Wa Primary School in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, who labelled him “stupid” and “crazy”.

“Part of the problem was that while the English on my protest placard is quite clear – ‘School Strike for Climate Action’ – the Chinese reads ‘If We Don’t Have a Future, Why Should We Go To School’,” Lance explains. “But my drawing’s message is pretty clear: part of it is [a] city, part of it is burning forests … the tide is coming in and there’s the deforestation.”