[Frustrated by their government’s failure to
curb carbon emissions, students across the country quit school for a day to
protest instead.]
By Livia Albeck-Ripka
 |
|
Milou
Albrecht, 14, center, speaking to students attending a rally for climate change
action
at the Old Treasury Building in Melbourne, Australia, on Friday.
Credit
Christina Simons for The New York Times
|
MELBOURNE,
Australia — As wildfires raged across the country, a heat wave again threatened
the Great Barrier Reef and a mining giant announced it would push ahead with a
huge coal project, thousands of students across Australia quit school for the
day on Friday to protest government inaction on climate change.
The students — ranging in age from 5 to 18 — came from more than 200 schools to demand that the federal government block construction of the Adani Carmichael coal mine, block any new coal or gas projects and require 100 percent renewable energy use by 2030.
“I am here because I am terrified,” Harriet
O’Shea Carre, 14, told a crowd of thousands of student marchers outside the Old
Treasury Building in Melbourne. Protesters spilled out onto the road with signs
saying “civil disobedience requires no permission slip” and “don’t be a fossil
fool.”
Ms. O’Shea Carre, an organizer of the march
and a student from Castlemaine Steiner School in Muckleford, about 70 miles
northwest of Melbourne, predicted dire consequences if the government failed to
act on climate change.
“I cannot bear the thought of losing the
people that I love, when it could have been stopped,” she said of climate
change. “And it can be stopped, but not for much longer.”
Another organizer, Milou Albrecht, said she
had been inspired by the actions of Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old girl in
Sweden who since September has spent every Friday sitting in protest outside
Parliament in Stockholm.
“I realized that I could do the same,” said
Ms. Albrecht, 14, a schoolmate of Ms. O’Shea Carre.
Ms. Thunberg tweeted her support of the
students.
With the help of their parents, climate
activists and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Ms. Albrecht, Ms. O’Shea
Carre and two other students from the same town, Callum Neilson-Bridgefoot, 11,
and Tully Boyle, 15, created a campaign video and set up a website and Facebook
groups to publicize the strike.
Ms. Albrecht said she was astonished by the
number of students who took part.
In Melbourne and Sydney, organizers estimated
that about 8,000 students participated, and hundreds more joined the effort in
other cities and towns. And earlier this week, an estimated 1,700 students
protested in other parts of the country, including more than 200 who showed up
at Parliament House in Canberra, the capital, to demand answers from Prime
Minister Scott Morrison.
On Monday, Mr. Morrison told senators that he
did not condone the strike, because students should focus on “more learning”
and “less activism.” He said he did not support “schools being turned into
parliaments.”
The resources minister, Matt Canavan, was
more pointed, saying students “don’t learn anything” by marching.
“I want kids to be at school to learn about
how you build a mine, how you do geology, how you drill for oil and gas,” he
told the local news media.
While the students did not manage to meet
with Mr. Morrison, they were able to discuss their climate demands with members
of the Green and Labor parties.
“We have seen parties listening to us, so we
do have hope,” said Maiysha Moin, 17, an organizer from Fintona Girls’ School
in Melbourne. “We’re part of a democracy; you can’t just ignore us because
we’re younger,” she added.
Organizers said the students were joined by
teenagers in Sweden, France, Norway and Finland who also skipped school in
support.
In Melbourne, the students left the Treasury
building’s steps to march through the busy city center. Some passers-by looked
on, bewildered, as the strikers chanted, “The youth are rising, we’re not
compromising.”
Livia Albeck-Ripka is a reporter for The
Times, currently based in Melbourne, Australia. Follow her on Twitter:
@livia_ar
