Warming world gets older, wiser, richer activists hot under the collar

When Audrey Cooke first spoke to her family about her retirement plans, they had one condition: “Don’t get arrested.”

Audrey Cooke at a Stop Adani rally. The 72-
year-old says she’s ‘an accidental activist’.

The 72-year-old retired Melbourne schoolteacher’s husband died of pancreatic cancer nine years ago. She has two young grandchildren. And she is now a full-time climate activist.

“I’ll do it until I drop,” she says. “I’m in a hurry. We are facing an existential threat and this is more important than anything for me.”

Cooke is one of a growing number of older protesters using their retirement to help the climate movement. Her tiny 1.5 metre (4ft 11in) frame has become familiar at protest marches and demonstrations. In 2017 she did get arrested after spending seven hours locked to a fence at the Adani Carmichael mine site.

Read the story from The Guardian by Ben Smee - “Warming world gets older, wiser, richer activists hot under the collar.”