Last Friday school children walked out of their classrooms and held demonstrations in support of action on climate change, something the current government seems incapable of comprehending, let alone dealing with. These children are vastly more worldly wise, more knowledgeable, and more aware than I ever remember my classmates or me being at their age. One of the things which struck me the most about their strike was the desperation, the wit and sometimes, the wisdom of some of the placards. Here are a few:
I’ve seen smarter cabinets at Ikea
We’ll be less activist if you’ll be less shit
Civil disobedience requires no permission slip
Why should we go to school if you won’t listen to the educated
There are no jobs on a dead planet
Act now or swim later
Make earth cool again
Save our future
Our future not yours
There is no planet B
Our future is in your hands
You’re burning our future
Scomo likes it hot (accompanied by a cartoon of Morrison in a bikini)
Our Earth, our future
One planet, one choice
Stop burning my ancestors
It’s our future
The planet cannot sustain the system
100% renewable is 100% doable
I am not in denial
We have to live with your mistakes
Do your f@#$%&g job!
Scomo says go back to school! We say: only if you come with us! #GetEducatedAboutClimateChange
System change not climate change
Beam you up Scotty (accompanied by a cartoon of Morrison being blown out the top of a cooling tower)
I’m sorry Ms Jackson (ooh) climate change is real
Don’t burn our future
I’m a huge fan of renewables (accompanied by a drawing of a wind turbine)
Kids are smarter than politicians! Stop Adani
Keep our planet green and cool
Save our planet please
The time has come
Coal is killing our planet
Policy change for climate change
Protect our home
You have one world. Don’t f$%# it up!
Clean up our planet. It’s not Uranus.
@scomo: education + activism = action
Stop wrecking the planet
Be cool. Stop global warming now
Scott Morrison needs an education
Coal cancer
Climate change is worse than homework
Where can we go?
Give a hoot, don’t pollute
I love a sun-powered country
I love clean energy and I can’t vote…yet.
I left school to keep the planet cool
Global warming is a global warning
If you were smart, we’d be in school
Sorry I can’t tidy my bedroom, I have to save the planet
I’ll stop farting if you stop burning coal!
@scomo Isn’t your govern-meant to enact policy?
This can’t wait till I’m bigger
Wake up! Take action now!
Horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment
Don’t just ignore our future until we don’t have one
Stop lining your pockets with our future
The oceans are rising and so are we
If this is the legacy of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government, to turn early teenagers into activists demanding the government look after its people rather than its donors, then it may have been worth the excruciatingly incompetent, corrupt, vacuous six years of conservative stupidity.
Which puerile conservative said the following about students taking time from their studies to send a message to our “adult” government and other arguably brain-dead politicians?
“The best thing you’ll learn about going to a protest is how to join the dole queue. Because that’s what your future life will look like, up in a line asking for a handout, not actually taking charge for your life and getting a real job.”
Tough question if you haven’t heard because it’s typical of the fatuous tosh which regularly dribbles from the mouths of Morrison government spokespeople.
Jon,
That was the venal Canavan who stated such drivel. He never wants the facts to get in the way of donations to the Queensland LNP.
One thing Canavan and his ilk don’t want is young people capable of independent thought having a voice. The ability to rationally consider issues and pick holes in political rhetoric won’t ever shake Canavan’s ideologically-based beliefs but it will advance our society far more than mindless acceptance of the status quo. Conservatives everywhere abandoned worrying about the credibility of their statements and policies long ago but they know informed ethical, social and reason-based thought is a danger to them having and holding power. Compare Canavan’s patently false and puerile dribble with the calm and considered views expressed by a 15 year old student Veronica Hester: https://www.smh.com.au/national/yes-prime-minister-i-m-striking-from-school-consider-it-a-climate-lesson-20181127-p50iqd.html Canavan is a classic case of what mixing with the wrong crowd can lead to.
Jon,
I don’t really think people like Canavan are completely ideologically driven. They are mostly venal bastards who will sell this country to whoever makes the most donations to their party. That is worse.
I see a conga line of conservative cretins (apologies for the tautology, conservatives would have done) has arrived to add their adult views on the student rally.
This from an unheard of senator who apparently goes by the name of James McGrath. From the SMH:
“Liberal senator James McGrath identified a spelling error in a placard held by one student at the protest, circling it in a photograph he posted on his Facebook page. The sign, which targeted Prime Minister Scott Morrison directly, misspelt “jealous” as “jelous”.
“Given some of the creative spelling on display at yesterday’s [Queensland Teachers Union]-endorsed muck-up day, perhaps these children’s teachers and parents might like to refocus their attention on the three Rs, of which rioting is not one of them,” Senator McGrath said.
“OF WHICH RIOTING IS NOT ONE OF THEM” – you couldn’t script it better if you were Shaun Micallef.
Then there was the hapless Craig Kelly, lead spokesman for the coalition for climate ignorance:
“Liberal MP Craig Kelly – who sits on the House of Representatives’ environment and energy committee – told Fairfax Media that if the children were serious about combating climate change they should forgo ice-creams and hamburgers.
“Given that the agricultural sector and the dairy sector is such a big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, they should say they’re going to go without ice-creams for 12 months,” he said.
“If they’re really serious they should make a commitment – no ice-cream, no hamburgers and no trips to the Gold Coast for schoolies, because of all the emissions from the airplanes.”
Kelly probably felt he was on safe ground after Canavan’s and McGrath’s puerile and nonsensical comments. After all anything else would appear to be positively cerebral by comparison with their drivel. Kelly’s “hair shirt” premise is utter nonsense. Even young schoolies would understand that the best thing they can do for the environment is to give this Morrison rabble the boot, preferably for a decade or more. Drovers dogs are better equipped to take this country forward and no doubt a few will make it into the next parliament but the average IQ will still probably rise.
Jon,
They do make you wonder. As I said elsewhere: ‘Who ties their shoelaces?’