by Wim Aerts
As of 20 August 2026, every working day, two brightly dressed Grandparents stroll through Brussels with a pimped-up pram.
Climate activists have been warning for decades about heat drones, droughts, torrential downpours, natural disasters and other calamities that we can prevent or mitigate through appropriate climate measures. Yet they were dismissed as doom-mongers or alarmists.
Well, the Grandparents are embracing “Climate Alarmist” as their badge of honour.
In recent weeks, the media and social media have paid a great deal of attention to the silence of policymakers, who are failing badly, even in the precarious circumstance as of this summer, with heat-related deaths, climate-fuelled wildfires, threatened water supplies, disrupted shipping and power plants being forced to shut down.
The Grandparents cannot stand by and watch this inertia continue, so they are taking action. And they intend to keep going as long as necessary.
The action started in the center of Brussels where a large number of grandparents watched the start of the first walk through the city. We welcomed many participants from the Grootouders voor het Klimaat (Dutch), the Grands-parents pour le Climat(French), and the European Grandparents for Climate.
Also, the media covered the launch of the campaign with articles and TV reports. See here in French and here in Dutch.