Another World Is Possible

Climate activist Helena Marschall, 20, takes us into a youth-led movement in Germany to get political leaders to act. And they are listening.

At a fragile time, when inaction seems to bring us closer to an irreversible climate reality, young people are mobilizing to reverse global warming. ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE follows the work of Helena, who leaves no doubt that urgent action is imperative. But she also offers hope, and a roadmap to impactful activism.

Helena organized one of Germany’s first school strikes for the cause. Now 20, she coordinates strategies and national campaigns for Fridays for Future Germany when not studying economics at Leuphana University in Lüneburg. Fridays for Future emerged as a grassroots movement after teen activist Greta Thunberg held up a “School Strike for Climate” sign in 2018 at the Swedish parliament. Strikers in hundreds of cities have followed Greta’s example, skipping Friday classes to go out to spur environmental awareness.

Germany has hosted some of the world’s largest Fridays for Future protests. In the biggest one, in 2021, Greta Thunberg led more than 100,000 marchers through the streets of Berlin. Helena’s film takes us there.

Young activists also regularly protest in Lützerath, an epicenter of coal extraction, where Helena talks to fellow activists while they protest plans to bulldoze the village to expand a lignite mine. Such protests are bearing tangible results.