China’s first Fridays for Future sees teen planting trees | DW | 2019

Howey Ou did not see any Chinese students in the Fridays for Future movement, so she became China’s first climate striker. She realized this was not an easy thing to do after the police took her from her first protest.

Howey Ou strode across the flower market of her home city of Guilin on a hazy October afternoon. But she had no consideration for the rhododendrons, anemones and bougainvilleas the shopkeepers had lined up along the market aisles. She was headed to a small stand at the very end of the market where she picked six scrawny osmanthus seedlings.

The osmanthus flower is praised in China for its scent, it is brewed into a fragrant tea or added as a flavor to rice wine. Poets have sung its praise. But these aren’t the characteristics that interest Howey. A professor had explained to her that the osmanthus is effective in absorbing carbon dioxide. Howey is China’s first climate striker and has not been to school for four months. But several times a week she buys seedlings and plants them in the surrounding area. “Protesting needs a lot of courage in China,” she said, “But planting trees is something we can do.” Continue reading