GUEST BLOG: Bryan Bruce – Kids call out the politicians on Climate Change.
It didn’t get much coverage on our TV News but an estimated 15,000 Aussie students staged a school strike last Friday to tell their politicians they had to do a lot more about Climate Change.
PM Scott Morrison promptly told the kids off in parliament.
“What we want is more learning in schools and less activism” he said … completely missing the fact that these young people were giving him a lesson in civics while at the same time forgetting that many of them are just a year or two from the voting age of 18.
Morrison may one day look back on that stupid remark and recognise it as the moment he lost the next election.
One of the signs I really liked was carried by a female high school student. It read:
“I’ve seen smarter Cabinets at Ikea”.
Brilliant.
It was clear from the many vox pop interviews I listened to however that Climate Change is no joke for many young people who are very worried about issues such as rising sea levels and sweltering temperatures.
We have 12 years left (90 Climate change scientists told us in a UN Intergovernmental report delivered just a couple of weeks ago) before there is irreversible change to our planet .
So good on these young people for embarrassing the Morrison government on the most important issue off our time.
Wouldn’t it be great if school kids from across America decided to march on Washington and their local courthouses and seats of State government to teach Trump a lesson in Climate Change?
I live in hope.
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
I feel sorry for today’s children: they are inheriting a messed-up planet which is still being run by climate criminals who make matters worse.
The strike by the kids in Australia has given me more hope around this issue than anything else I’ve seen. The sheer joy in their faces at making their stand – along with the hilarious placards lampooning their silly PM have moved me beyond belief.
If you watch these kids and smile that’s great but if you watch them and it makes you mad, you’re part of the problem I’m afraid
So let’s plant an apple tree: it’s time.
Brainwashing the children! Next thing the boys will want to be girls and the girls will want to be boys. Oops…that’s already happening.
I know…let’s sit them down to watch climate manipulation at work.
Not brainwashing the children Helena. They don’t need to be brainwashed because they actually have intelligent brains which they are using to understand what is happening with the climate and even going one step further – doing something about it. So good on them for doing what they did – I’m with Aaron.
As for your snide puerile anti LGBTQIA remark – you really have displayed the type of person you are.