Teenagers don’t strike because they fancy time off school, they do it because it’s the most effective tool they have to make their voices heard. But they need adult support, not condemnation
Opinion: On March 3, protesters across Aotearoa will hit the streets for the annual global climate strike. The main organisers of these strikes are teenagers. Our afterschool hours are filled with committee meetings, incessant emails, phone calls, and climate anxiety, but above all, an unshakeable determination to make these strikes a success.
My generation is growing desperate. With each passing year of unfulfilled political promises and unambitious climate policies, we are watching our future become unliveable. We don’t strike because we fancy a day off school, we strike because it’s the most effective tool we have to make our voices heard. But we can’t do it without your support.
The climate science is settled. The scientific consensus on global warming began to form in the 80s, although researchers had been ringing alarm bells on this since the 60s. We know with certainty that the global rise in temperature averages is caused by human activity, and we know it is having disastrous effects on our planet and its inhabitants.
If the reports and graphs weren’t convincing enough, the live news reports certainly should be – stories of wildfires, cyclones, tornadoes, flooding and droughts are near constant now. These disasters alone are killing and displacing millions of people, but the total death toll of climate change is even higher. Extreme temperatures were estimated in a study in The Lancet in 2021 to have contributed to as many as five million deaths in a single year.
These extreme weather events aren’t just killing people abroad. The recent Tāmaki Makaurau floods and Cyclone Gabrielle have brought the painful reality of the climate crisis to our own shores and claimed the lives of 15 people so far. These deaths are awful, but not surprising. We were warned of the increasing frequency of extreme weather events around the corner, and we did not act swiftly to cut emissions and redesign our cities to better withstand flooding.
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* Making a point with a protest
* Climate change education needed to better engage pupils
We twiddled our collective thumbs, stalled on common-sense policies, and hoped what we had would be enough. It wasn’t. These tragedies should serve as a wake-up call to the urgency of radical climate legislation – an Aotearoa ‘Green New Deal’.
My heart breaks for those who have lost their right to shelter and basic necessities, their loved ones, and their lives to this crisis. If you feel the same rage and sorrow as I do when you see those headlines of destruction, you should be doing everything you can to enact systemic environmental change. Individual changes are admirable. Recycling, shopping second-hand, using public transport, going vegetarian: these are all tangible and effective ways to reduce your personal emissions, and you should be acting on them.
But we have to think bigger, act bolder. This climate crisis is a structural issue. It’s the result of the failings of capitalism, and of neoliberal short-term electoral politics. A crisis of this magnitude isn’t going to be fixed by your beeswax food wrap or electric vehicle alone. It requires a rehaul of the system that makes convenient single-use plastic ubiquitous, the system that demands and glamorises the use of fossil-fuel-powered personal vehicles. What it requires is a mass movement of citizens protesting for policy change and a dramatic redesign of our economy.
We are starting to see this take hold. Aotearoa's third school strike, in 2019, was attended by more than 20,000 protesters. Our main demand, the declaration of a climate emergency by the NZ government, was acted on only a year later. More recently, Restore Passenger Rail protesters have been bravely calling for the restoration of affordable intercity passenger trains.
But we need more action. We need these school strikes to be the most impactful yet if we want to realise our demands. This year, School Strike for Climate Aotearoa has five national goals:
* No new fossil fuel mining or exploration. We know to reach carbon neutral by 2050, this is a necessity. Corporate greed is the force driving this exploration, and it must be denied.
* To lower the voting age to 16, in line with the ruling by the Supreme Court that the current voting age is a breach of human rights.
* A 30 percent increase in the area of protected marine reserves by 2025. The current Marine Protected Areas legislation is ineffectual. We need to protect our moana from harm by extending protections as soon as possible.
* Rebates on ebikes for low income households. A similar scheme for electric cars has been very successful. A rebate will make ebikes affordable to everyone, reduce congestion on our roads, and improve travellers’ health.
* Support for farmers in their transition to regenerative farming. Agriculture accounts for 48 percent of Aotearoa’s carbon emissions, but it provides our food and is a vital sector of our economy. Farmers need to be incentivised and supported more radically to phase out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, to restore wetland and topsoil, and to reduce their herd.
These are our top five most immediate and feasible policies that could curb emissions and protect our natural environment, and we need to see them implemented now. But to do so, we need people power in the streets at our strike. An hour off school or work is nothing compared with the importance of the legislative change we can catalyse if we have enough people striking. So drop what you’re doing, pick up a placard, and join us in one of these locations on Friday March 3:
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: Britomart Station, 3pm
Whakatū Nelson: Trafalgar St, 3pm
Ōtautahi Christchurch: Cathedral Square, 3pm
Ōtepoti Dunedin: Octagon, 3pm
Te Papaioea Palmerston North: The Square, 3pm
Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington: Civic Square, 2.30 pm
Kaitaia: Te Ahu Centre, 2.40pm gathering for 3pm march
