The house is burning

‘The dinos thought they had more time too,’’ our 10-year-old Oli chants to us, telling us about the sign he’s made for the School Strike 4 Climate Change march. He’s excited, proud to be joining a movement that he knows more about than we do. The senior class and teachers at Broad Bay School are travelling by bus together from their idyllic setting on Otago’s Peninsula – a place that seems a million miles away from catastrophic climate change – into town.

The night before the march Oli hardly sleeps, filled with stories of devastation that await our planet if we do nothing. When I go to check on him, he reaches for my hand and pulls me in close. ‘‘We’re running out of time,’’ he says, repeating the words of Greta Thunberg, the Swedish schoolgirl who has inspired a global movement of schoolchildren striking to demand climate change action. ‘‘Will the world still be here in 2057?’’

2057 – he’ll be almost as old as I am now. He’s scared and wants me to tell him it’ll all be OK. But I’m torn. ‘‘I hope so,’’ I say. ‘‘That’s why we need to try to use less energy and recycle and try to stop using so much plastic.’’

He’s not satisfied. ‘‘We need to get an electric car,’’ he says conclusively.

I remember my first street march at 17, protesting a hike in university fees in 1995. I felt so grown up, getting pushed and pushing back – part of a mob marching through Dunedin’s streets towards the Town Hall. ‘‘Out, out, out, what’s the story filthy Tory,’’ we chanted. I didn’t know who or what the filthy Tory was, but I knew it had something to do with paying more for university, which I didn’t want to do. The following year, I took part in the protests before the week-long occupation of the Registry. I changed my mind on being part of the actual occupation, worried my grades would suffer as a result of days out of lectures.

At the time I didn’t care enough. How much could the fees increase in my university career? I only had a few years left. It was more important that I focus on my grades for my future. Leave it to others to lead the charge.

But climate change leaves no time for complacency. The tsunami of young voices inspired by Greta Thunberg marching together for action last Friday was an image of hope on a day that will be forever remembered as one of New Zealand’s darkest days.

Greta says she doesn’t want us to feel hope, she needs us to feel panic. To feel the fear she feels every day. The fear Oli felt the night he watched her message. Our house is burning. It’s time to panic.