There is this misconception that young people are oblivious to what's going on around them, but from what I saw on Friday, September 20 at the School Strike 4 Climate, I think we are proving them wrong.
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Because I believe that as young people it is our moral duty and obligation - to ourselves and to future generations - to make our voices heard.
To tell the government that we want a future with clean water, healthy food and a liveable environment.
To tell the government that we don't accept a future that their fossil fuel policies will produce.
A future of droughts, bushfires, food and water shortages, extreme heat, storms and all the associated health impacts that will involve.
We must act now. We are the ones who will bear the consequences of today's choices.
Social justice demands that we act in the interest of the poor across the world. We are the privileged first world with sophisticated response systems, hospitals, emergency services, technology.
Imagine facing a world undergoing a climate catastrophe with nothing.
Social justice demands that we act in the interest of our Pacific Islander neighbours, whose very nations are set to disappear within years.
Social justice demands that we act in the interest of the poor across the world. We are the privileged first world with sophisticated response systems, hospitals, emergency services, technology. Imagine facing a world undergoing a climate catastrophe with nothing.
Quite simply, we are striking because it is the right thing to do.
Scott Morrison says "How good is Australia?"
Well let's think about that, shall we? We are that good that we aren't meeting our Paris Climate Accord commitments.
We are that good that our leaders would rather continue being the world's largest coal exporter, instead of leading the way forward for a sustainable future.
And we are that good that our rate of deforestation is contributing to the greatest rate of species extinction in history.
I want our prime minister to stop and think about his legacy.
Does he want to be remembered for contributing to the destruction of our environment?
Or does he want to be remembered for leading the way forward for a sustainable and safe planet?
Politicians tell us that we should be at school and learning.
We should have these forums outside of school hours, they say.
Well, I ask you, Mr Morrison, why should I or any of these students at these strikes go to school and learn for a future which under your government's current policies won't exist?
To secure our future, we need urgent action on climate change.
