Last week it was inspiring to listen to three young people who are leaders in the school strike campaign. It was sobering for me to realise that the inspiring and eloquent young woman who was one of the speakers was 53 years younger than me…
Here’s the video of the speakers at last week’s Tuesday Club, thanks to Aaron Campbell https://youtu.be/KjT_Bwa-VLw
It is really important that we support this group of future community leaders. It was absolutely depressing to read in the Press on Saturday that there are a number of candidates standing for Local Body elections who are denying that human beings are the cause of Global Warming. How could there still be deniers standing for elected office when 95% of the world’s scientists agree with the science of Global Warming?
This week, on Friday, the next School strike will take place. Here are the details and it is essential that we join our young leaders at this event.
Here is a message from one of the leaders of the event:
Kia ora,
Sophie from School Strike 4 Climate NZ here! Thanks so much for signing our Open Letter to our Elected Leaders. We are a student-led, student-powered movement fighting for action on climate change here in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Our movement is mobilising tens of thousands of young people and adult allies across the motu. We are united by the simple belief that that our generation and future generations have a right to inherit a liveable future on this planet, and that this requires our leaders to take bold and courageous action on the climate crisis now.
Next Friday, September 27th, we will be holding our next strike. This strike will be a little different, as it is an intergenerational strike rather than a school strike. On Friday, the many thousands of students going on strike from their kindergartens, schools and universities will be joined by workers, businesses, parents, teachers, grandparents and wider whānau to show that New Zealanders are united in their call for climate justice.
I am writing to let you know that we will be marching on Parliament next Friday to deliver this very Open Letter from the youth of Aotearoa to our elected representatives, and we have made several minor changes to the letter, ahead of its delivery to our elected leaders next week on Friday.
The main changes we have made are to the demands for our elected leaders in the Letter. We have added a fifth demand:
[That] The Government honours its responsibility to our Pacific Island neighbours by ensuring its domestic climate policies align with the Paris Agreement 1.5 goal; releasing a public adaptation plan for Climate Change survivors to migrate to New Zealand with dignity; and actively supporting the regional and international diplomatic efforts of Pacific Islands Small Island Developing States to increase climate ambition and mitigate the climate crisis before it’s too late.
We added this fifth demand to reflect our obligation to our Pacific Island neighbours, those on the frontlines of climate change. You can reply to this email if you are not happy to support any of the text changes.
We have also now established an Open Letter for organisations to sign which can be found here:
Businesses & Organisations: An Open Letter from the Youth of Aotearoa
As we are delivering this Open Letter next week, we need your help in sending it to as many people as you can to ensure that the Open Letter has maximum impact and that we see necessary action to safeguard our planet for future generations.
Share the Open Letter on Facebook
As we mentioned above, we will be delivering the letter at our event in Wellington but there are lots more intergenerational strike events happening across the country.
Details for an event near you can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/schoolstrike4climatenz/events/
We are all looking forward to standing in solidarity with you all next Friday, 27th Sept for our collective home and to demand climate justice.
See you there,
Sophie – On behalf of School Strike 4 Climate NZ
SchoolStrike4Climate NZ started this petition on the OurActionStation community campaign platform. If there’s an issue close to your heart that you’d like to campaign on, you can start your campaign here.
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