Castlemaine students have once again gone on ‘strike’ joining countless thousands of youngsters across the nation demanding genuine policy change to rapidly check the looming threat of runaway climate change.
On Friday students from both local primary and secondary schools took to the steps of Castlemaine’s central Market Building to hold placards, be seen, and make their concerns publicly known – again.
“Subsidising the fossil fuel sector is subsidising the destruction of our future,” one local student told the Express during Friday’s action.
Castlemaine Secondary College student, Callum Neilson Bridgfoot, said Friday’s COVID-safe action particularly called for an end to Australia’s current propping up the fossil fuel sector to the tune of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies each year.
“Right now we have a huge opportunity to invest in clean energy and bring justice to those affected heavily by climate change,” Callum said.
“The clean energy solutions will create thousands of jobs and help us to tackle climate change.
“Instead our federal government is talking about using taxpayers’ money to fund the dirty, polluting gas industry and doing nothing about the communities that climate change is affecting.
“Gas is a fossil fuel that’s driving climate change and hurting people and our climate. By backing the gas industry, the government is putting my future at risk.”
Castlemaine student Niamh O’Connor Smith said now was a particularly critical time in the climate justice movement.
“We’re leading up to a federal election,” she said also naming the upcoming COP 26 UN climate talks in Glasgow as a last ditch chance for world leaders to help the planet switch course before the futures of young people are fried.
“I’d like our government to have no new oil, coal or gas mines, including Adani, commit to net zero by 2030, and fund a just transition for all fossil fuel workers,” said Castlemaine Primary School student, Arlo, attending Friday’s local school strike as similar actions simultaneously took place nationwide.
“I’m very worried for my future because right now the government isn’t doing anything.”
Castlemaine TAFE student Luka, 20, said he had been participating in School Strikes For Climate since the first in 2018, in Melbourne.
“I want the government to make some actual changes to keep the environment safe and the climate safe,” Luka said.
The students’ calls particularly include demands to end spending public funds on gas and other fossil fuel projects, and to instead deliver strong support for projects transitioning the nation’s economy to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
They also called for First Nations solutions to protect Country with First Nations communities also notably participating in Friday’s national school strike action.
In Castlemaine, the students’ deeply held fears were reiterated also on Sunday when local church leaders and faithful, including Uniting, Anglican and Catholic denominations, actively took to the streets to march as part of a worldwide multi faith climate justice movement – as their bells rang out.
