Remind me how school strike was ‘just a day off ’
Ithink life peaks at about 17. After that, you have to be a rich kid whose parents pay for your uni courses or you don’t get school holidays any more. I really, really miss school holidays. Doesn’t everyone? Some say that’s the reason I quit my job to become a part-time columnist and fulltime student.
When I was at school, the July holidays were the perfect time for snacks, TV and rediscovering old computer games. This week would have been a good time for Guitar Hero. Instead, I’m walking through Auckland City after work. The road hasn’t even dried from this morning’s showers, it’s been cold and grey. I’d rather be inside than out.
And as the sun sets on Karangahape Rd, a group of annoyingly upbeat teens pull me out of my postwork zombie-like state. Look at them, without a care in the world. Smoking cigarettes, loitering, drawing out their two weeks of fun before the school term starts again. How I envy them.
But, wait a minute, if I just took some time to listen to these kids maybe I might realise that they aren’t loitering or wasting the day. And they have many, many worries about this world. The pack of cigarettes, it’s a box of chalk. It’s in the hand of one of Auckland’s School Strike 4 Climate leaders, Maia McRoberts.
Most of the chalk is on this small patch of dry cement, which reads: ‘‘Free Food this way’’ and some other stuff about climate change.
I’m not sure what to think about that cynical food-based bribery. I’m certainly not surprised. After all, these are the people who have been told time and time again that their actions to save this planet are selfish, disingenuous and pointless.
Let’s rewind back to when they first walked out of the classroom to demand climate action.
Simon Bridges, leader of the Opposition, was as supportive as ever. ‘‘A couple of chants as they march along and maybe McDonald’s afterwards. I don’t know if they’d learn a lot from it,’’ he said.
One principal said his students would have ‘‘probably zero’’ impact. Other schools moved assessments to the strike day, to punish their students who give a damn. Undeterred they went on strike again, in May.
Champion of the everyman, millionaire broadcaster Mike Hosking had some inspiring words: ‘‘Entitled kids bunking off and pretending they’re fixing a climate issue.’’
These youth, the post-millennial generation, are obviously greedy. If you listen to talkback radio with Sean Plunket, you’d know climate change is a conspiracy masterminded by evil scientists and madmen who just want to see the world burn.
The nefarious forces probably paid off these three young women who are spending their holidays helping people make submissions to the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill.
What else have they been doing? Holding a bright red sign advertising their ‘‘Zero Carbon Bill Submission Party’’, Rebecca Kerr tells me they’ve spent the holiday planting trees and plotting their next course of action. Tell me, again, how this climate strike was just an excuse for a day off.
Teenagers just like Lourdes Vano, who spent her night on K Rd with Maia and Rebecca, were across the country late on Tuesday collecting last-minute submissions for this monumentally important bill. She told me: ‘‘Just because we’re off school doesn’t mean this isn’t important. This is one of the most important things for me, for everyone.’’
They’ve used social media to get people to come along to a K Rd studio, where other organisers are helping people make submissions to Parliament and filling people in about why this matters.
Inside, there are kids manning laptops, others with cameras. There are teenagers meeting and talking with anyone and everyone, be they parents or street sleepers, who wander in from the street.
Maia says this is a global movement, formed by haphazard meetings and social media pages. ‘‘We’re just a bunch of kids wanting to do something, but not sure what.’’
Their concern is genuine, and incredibly depressing. A Stuff survey of 15,000 readers drew up a shocking graph which shows how concerned each age group is with climate change. It descends each age bracket. The older, the more ambivalent.
Over the past week, pop star Miley Cyrus and 17-year-old climate columnist Mia Sutherland raised a serious question that many young people would have pondered. Is it ethical to have children in the 21st century? A lot of older people simply laughed at their worries, but it’s a real concern for many, which shows just how much is at stake for these generations.
While 17-year-olds across the world ponder huge ethical questions, strike, look for solutions and help educate strangers, what are those with power doing? Simon Bridges laughed, radio broadcasters mock them and spread conspiracy theories.
To me, it seems power is in the wrong hands. It’s time to lower the voting age.
While 17-yearolds across the world ponder huge ethical questions, strike, look for solutions and help educate strangers, what are those with power doing?