MIETTE Xenith, 17, just wants the Federal Government to care about climate change.
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That’s why the Newcastle High School student is organising local participation in the student led Big Walk Out, being held as part of the School Strike 4 Climate Action campaign.
“From where I live, I can almost see the world’s largest coal port,” Miette said. “We want the government to realise they are destroying the planet which we have to live in.
“We believe the planet should be the number one priority.”
Miette said she felt angry about government “inaction on climate change”.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Miette said. "People don’t understand that it’s a big deal and so they don’t bother to do the research.
“Once you do the research … it’s an international emergency. It needs to be fixed.
“It makes me angry, and scared and upset.”
Miette said she believed the government was not dealing with climate change because they would not be alive when the worst impacts of a warming planet were felt.
“They aren’t going to be around to deal with the real consequences of it,” she said. “They don’t consider the fact that we are going to have to clean up their mess.
“They need to put in the effort and make the changes that need to be made when they need to be made, not five years later.”
Among her peers, Miette said she has never met anyone who doubts climate change is real.
“Everybody my age almost thinks it’s comical that some people in government don’t believe in climate change,” she said.
“The evidence is all around us. We are living with the evidence.”
The students will gather at the front of the Federal Member for Newcastle, Sharon Claydon’s office, on November 30, at midday, to state their concerns about government “inaction on climate change”.
Miette said she expects the action to be well attended with representation from students in the Newcastle area.
The campaign began in Central Victoria where Year 8 students have been striking from school once a week, since the beginning of the month, to protest political inaction on climate change and the Adani coal mine.
Students as young as five are joining in on the action as the campaign gains momentum across the nation.
Strikes are been organised by students via social media.
A Facebook event for the strike shows strikes have been organised across about a dozen Federal seats. However, organisers say they expect more students to join in as word spreads.
More: schoolstrike4climate.com