Strike for Your Future - School Strike for Climate 2021

By Freya Cooper

Photo Credits: Thomas Wood

This October 19th many people around Australia will be striking for the climate.

Climate change is the warming of our atmosphere, driven by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. Human activity has caused a rapid increase in greenhouse gas emissions in our atmosphere - such that our earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. We are already seeing the impacts of climate change, intensified weather events, record temperatures etc. These changes in turn negatively affect our food production, water availability, general health and wellbeing, safety, and the biodiversity of ecosystems.

This is serious, and we are fast running out of time to act. Many governments around the world are stepping up their climate policies - but Australia is failing to take action. Our government is still supporting the fossil fuel industry, one that puts our future on the line. So, on May 21st, we are striking from school and work to show the government that we demand action on the climate emergency.

School strikes first began in 2018 with a Swedish school girl named Greta Thunberg. She refused to attend school, instead spending days outside the Swedish parliament in a bid to draw more attention to the climate crisis. Believing that, if people will not listen and act on the research done by highly educated scientists, what is the point of being educated. Since then, school strikes have become a global movement, calling on governments around the world to take stronger and more urgent action on climate change. The strikes have attracted significant attention, giving a voice to youth around the world. Since they have begun, young people have been welcomed to the table of climate discussions, and countries have started setting increasingly ambitious emission reduction policies.

Our message is that the Australian government fund our future, not gas. With their proposals to invest in new gas infrastructure, the transition away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy is slipping further and further away. This is our first demand - no new coal, oil, or gas projects.

We need to generate our electricity from the sun, wind, hydrogen, and water - not from fossil fuels that pollute and warm our world. We need to listen and learn from First Nations peoples and their solutions to protect Country. The technology for renewables is only getting cheaper, more reliable, and more efficient. Technology and markets are improving as countries around the world are committing to ambitious net zero policies. Australia has amazing potential for renewable energy generation, so why would we use taxpayer money to prop up a dying fossil fuel industry? This is our second demand - 100% renewable energy exports and generation by 2030.

We can create thousands of new jobs by growing our renewable industries and transitioning our economy. And there is no better time to start this transition as our economy is emerging from the pandemic induced recession. This is the third and final demand - that all fossil fuel workers and communities be given a just transition and job creation away from their current industry.

So, join us on the 19th of October to strike for the climate and demand that the Australian government funds our future, not gas.

There will be a strike in Launceston, Civic Square, October 19th. We will meet at City Park at 11:00 and march to Civic Square. See you there :)

(Find out more info via the SS4C Facebook Page! Please remember to register at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/school-strike-for-climate-launceston-tickets-172495848727)