Teens: March with us

Thousands to leave school to take part in climate change protests today

Tens of thousands of students are again taking to the streets over climate change action and this time they want Kiwi workers to march with them.

Nearly 100 businesses and universities around the country will today join pupils for the third School Strike 4 Climate protest.

It caps a week in which the movement’s 16-year-old figurehead, Greta Thunberg, dressed down a summit of world leaders, telling them: “We are at the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth” and a major UN report warned time was fast running out to solve the climate crisis.

More than 40 events around New Zealand are scheduled today, from large demonstrations in main centres to rallies in places as remote as Great Barrier Island.

“We are definitely expecting it will be the biggest turnout yet,” said the strike’s national co-ordinator, Paekakariki teenager Sophie Handford.

Last Friday, millions of young people packed out parks in world cities like Sydney, Berlin and New York, as part of the global push.

Handford said New Zealand’s events had been scheduled a week later as many pupils were sitting school exams.

“But there happens to be a global strike on September 27 as well, involving 170 countries and more than 6300 events so we are looking at something the same size as last week.”

Handford was heartened that workers from 90 businesses, ranging from bookshops and bakeries to consultancies and architecture firms, would be downing tools to take part.

“We’ve deliberately scheduled our events around lunchtime, so adults can join us by taking a longer break. We’d like the focus of this event to be not just on students.”

Unlike the country’s first rally on March 15 — quickly overshadowed by that day’s terror attack in Christchurch — there had been seemingly little pushback from schools this time, she said.

“It’s helped that universities have jumped on board, and that we’ve had some good conversations with the main teachers’ unions,” she said.

“But also, we’ve seen students are becoming a lot more willing to take action, regardless of what their school is saying, because there is so much at stake, and that this is the most important issue for so many young people in New Zealand.”