"NEW YORK/SHENYANG, China - A keen reader of graphic novels, nine-year-old Zayne Cowie has a bookshelf laden with tales of the struggles of imaginary superheroes. Now, a real-life role model has inspired him to join a battle for his own planet’s future.
Kept awake some nights by fears that rising seas will devastate his native Brooklyn, Cowie came across a news story about Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teen who was walking out of class on Fridays to protest government inaction over climate change.
No longer feeling quite so powerless, Cowie persuaded his mother to help him stage a parallel protest outside New York’s City Hall in early December. He has since kept vigil there 26 times, embodying the kind of tenacity that turned Thunberg into the global face of a youth protest movement."
Aron Ranen and Martin Quin Pollard report for Reuters June 20, 2019.
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