Young lead way in call for climate action

The climate strike protests led by school-age children that filled the country’s streets and parks on Friday won’t change anything by themselves but they certainly show that young people are concerned.

The number of people who showed in Melbourne – about 100,000 of them – and many thousands more elsewhere around the country show this movement has struck a chord among young people.

At a time when parents complain about children being disengaged or depressed and lost in a virtual world on their phones, many will applaud the active interest in current affairs. Recognising that, many schools decided to give students time off to attend.

Read the Editorial from The Age - “Young lead way in call for climate action.”

The fear of climate change is transforming young identities

Rallies planned across Australia on Friday drew thousands of students who walked out of school to protest inaction on climate change.

Young people's sense of self, identity, and existence
  is being fundamentally altered by climate change.

These Australian students joined children from more than 82 countries who are striking to highlight systemic failure to address climate change.

But the strikes represent more than frustration and resistance. They are evidence of an even bigger process of transformation.

My research investigates how young people's sense of self, identity, and existence is being fundamentally altered by climate change.

Read the piece from The Conversation on ABC News by Blanche Verily - “The fear of climate change is transforming young identities.”

I’m encouraging my nine-year-old daughter to wag school this coming Frida

I’m encouraging my nine-year-old daughter to wag school this coming Friday.

Students across Australia walked out of school in
November to protest inaction on climate change.

It’s not that I don’t value her education. I absolutely do. It’s just that on Friday 15 March I think she’s likely to learn more outside the classroom than in it.

She’ll be joining students in over 50 countries, and 40 separate locations around Australia, for the School Strike 4 Climate rally.

Read the story from The Sydney Morning Herald by Kasey Edwards - “I’m encouraging my nine-year-old daughter to wag school this coming Friday.

Hawkesbury students to strike for policy action on climate change

Up to one hundred Hawkesbury students from years 10, to 12 will be striking from school on Friday, March 15, demanding the government takes policy action on climate change.

Hawkesbury students ready to take strike action for the climate.

The Colo High School and Bede Polding College students, along with a group from Katoomba High, will catch public transport to the CBD to join students from schools around Sydney for the strike.

The School Strike 4 Climate Action website claimed tens of thousands of students from around the world would be participating in strikes.

William Potter (17), leader of the Go MAD Colo Student Action Group environmental initiative, said the strike would raise his generation’s concerns relating to climate change and the impact it poses on their futures.

Read the story from The Hawkesbury Gazette by Sarah Falson - “Hawkesbury students to strike for policy action on climate change.”

Greta Thunberg: ‘All my life I’ve been the invisible girl’

When I first catch sight of Greta Thunberg, it is eight in the morning, and a small crowd has already gathered. It is a Friday, her day of protest, and the 16-year-old is standing outside the rose-coloured parliament building, next to a beaten-up sign that says “School strike for climate” in Swedish.

Greta Thunberg - the climate activist on becoming the face
of a global movement — and why she sees her Asperger’s as a gift.

The February sun has barely risen over Stockholm. Thunberg is slightly hard to spot, because she is so little — less than five feet tall. Her face peeks out between a big hat and a thick scarf. “Well, it’s warm today,” she says with a smile, when I ask how the protest is going. It is 5C and doesn’t feel very warm to me.

This is the 26th week of her school strike, which has taken place every Friday since school started last August — including vacations. During that time she has rocketed to a level of fame and influence that pretty much nobody, including herself, expected.

Read the story from the Financial Times by Leslie Hook - “Greta Thunberg: ‘All my life I’ve been the invisible girl’.

National records melt in 'prolonged spell of heat' with more to come.

A huge swathe of Australia baked in mid-40 degree heat on Friday, with more records likely to be broken at the tail-end of a heatwave that set a slew of national highs last month.

A view of the sun rise from Newport beach in Sydney's
north on December 28, 2018 - the warmest night on
 record for Australia for that month.CREDIT:

The mercury was tipped to reach at least 45 degrees over a region stretching from northern Western Australia into Victoria and the NSW Riverina.

Read the story from The Age by Peter Hannam - “National records melt in 'prolonged spell of heat' with more to come.”

Warning for extreme heatwave for southern Australia after new year reprieve

Temperatures will climb above 40C in South Australia and Victoria on Thursday and Friday and an ex-tropical cyclone could re-form off the coast of Queensland.

 A man stretches during sunrise over Altona pier in Melbourne,
which is predicted to reach 42C on Friday, when an extreme
heatwave is forecast for southern Australia.

After a couple of milder days in parts of southern Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a resurgence of the high temperatures seen throughout the Christmas period, with possible severe to extreme fire danger over the next two days.

A broad area of the country will have temperatures 10 to 16 degrees above average for January. Adelaide is expected to reach 41C on Thursday and Melbourne 42C on Friday.

Parts of inland Victoria will have temperatures that climb into the mid 40s over the next two days: Mildura in the state’s northwest is forecast to reach 41C on Thursday and 46C on Friday.

Read the story from The Guardian by Lisa Cox - “Warning for extreme heatwave for southern Australia after new year reprieve.”

A balmy start, but Melbourne is bracing for 42 degrees

Temperatures are expected to climb above 40 degrees on Friday as the state heads into the summer peak.

Melbourne could reach 42 degrees on Friday.

Following a balmy start to 2019, Melbourne is forecast to see the mercury rise on Thursday to 28 degrees before climbing to an expected 42 degrees on Friday.

Senior forecaster Rod Dickson said north-westerly winds were dragging heat from inland, causing a day of extreme heat.

"The maximum temperature depends on the time of the cool southerly change," Mr Dickson said.

Read the story from The Age  by Sumeyya Ilanbey and Olivia Jenkins -  “A balmy start, but Melbourne is bracing for 42 degrees.”

Yes, Prime Minister, I'm striking from school: consider it a climate lesson

I am Veronica, 15 years old, from Scott Morrison’s electorate. Despite our Prime Minister’s calls for students not to strike from school on Friday, we’re choosing to no longer be powerless. We will be striking with thousands of other students, to show we will not stand for our government’s inaction on climate change.

Veronica Hester, a 15-year-old student from Sutherland
 Shire, who will be among young Australians striking
from school on Friday.

Mr Morrison has condemned the strike, saying he does not support our schools being turned into parliaments. “More learning and less activism,” he said. If he and our politicians listened to the climate science we have been taught, and took action like those of us in school, we wouldn’t have to resort to strike action.

In school, we have seen the raw truth of climate change: videos of our dead and dying Great Barrier Reef, increasingly shocking statistics, forecasts of a worrying future.

Seeing this, we students do not shout at each other across the classroom. We sit in a shocked silence. Afterwards, we shout, with our signs and our demands. Because how can an educated person know all we know, and do nothing?

Read the story by Veronica Hester from The Sydney Morning Herald - “Yes, Prime Minister, I'm striking from school: consider it a climate lesson.”

Why aren't they doing anything?: Students strike to give climate lesson

This Friday, November 30, thousands of Australian students will go on strike, demanding their politicians start taking serious action on climate change.

Lucie Atkin-Bolton, an 11-year-old student and school
captain at Forest Lodge Public School, wants an end
 to 'coal-sourced energy', and is willing to go on strike for it.CREDIT:

The movement, School Strike 4 Climate Action, has been inspired by a 15-year-old Swedish student, Greta Thunberg, who started boycotting classes before parliamentary elections in her nation on September 9, and continues to skip school every Friday. She also has a particular message for Australia.

Students in each state capital and across 20 regional Australian centres will walk out of their classrooms this week to tell politicians that more of the same climate inaction is not good enough.

Here are some of the lessons they hope to teach.

Read The Sydney Morning Herald story by Peter Hannam - “Why aren't they doing anything?: Students strike to give climate lesson.”

Take a walk in the garden . . . . . . .

Take a walk in the garden and learn something about climate change.

Knowledge Melbourne working with Melbourne Royal Botanical Gardens  has organised the walk for Friday, September 28.

It has been argued the walk will help people see, and better understand the signs of a warming city and along with that measure the impact of climate change on the city’s plants and animals.

In encouraging people to book for the “Climate Watch walk, Knowledge Melbourne says people will also contribute to the largest phenology project in the Southern Hemisphere.

Beyond that, people can create valuable data anywhere, anytime on the ClimateWatch app and so they are being encouraged to keep a  watch-out for species around the city.

Those eager to attend can book direct with the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Darwin and the Top End warned to prepare for Cyclone Marcus

Darwin is in the direct line of a cyclone expected to form into a category 2 storm north of Australia on Friday.

Cyclone Marcus forecast track map issued at
11:13 am ACST Friday 16 March 2018.

Residents of the Northern Territory capital city and across the Top End have been warned to prepare for Cyclone Marcus, which is predicted to make landfall overnight and hit Darwin in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Areas from Maningrida to the Daly river mouth, including Darwin and the Tiwi Islands, are on an official cyclone warning, along with areas from the Daly river mouth to the Western Australia border.

WA emergency services have also issued a blue alert, urging those in areas from the NT border to Mitchell plateau, including Kununurra and Wyndham, to make preparations.

Read Helen Davidson’s story from The Guardian - “Darwin and the Top End warned to prepare for Cyclone Marcus.”

Victoria storm: keep off the roads, stay at home and prepare for flooding

Keep off the roads, stay at home and prepare for flooding. That was the message from Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, as torrential rain hit the state on Friday.

About 100mm of rain has been forecast for Melbourne between 1 and 3 December.

“With some common sense and looking out for each other, I know Victorians will get through this very difficult period,” Andrews told reporters in Melbourne, as he urged people to leave work early.

He warned Victorians not to become complacent and to check on neighbours and loved ones with more heavy falls to come on Friday night and into Saturday.

In the 24 hours up to 5pm on Friday, the state’s highest rainfall of 73mm was recorded at Arcadia, near Shepparton.

Read The Guardian story - “Victoria storm: keep off the roads, stay at home and prepare for flooding.”

Wild weather: Monster storm threatens 20 per cent of Australia's wheat crop

Heavy rains in eastern Australia could wipe out or damage up to 4 million tonnes of wheat due to be harvested shortly, forecasters said on Friday.

Farmers have been working round the clock to harvest
their crops before the wild weather strikes. 

The "major weather event" being faced by most of Victoria and parts of South Australia and NSW this weekend poses a major threat to the countries grain harvest.

"The main concern is that these are the areas where crops are still being harvested," said James Maxwell of Australian Crop Forecasters, which expects to downgrade its national wheat forecast of 21.7 million tonnes once the damage is assessed.

"At the moment, we estimate that around 4 million tonnes will be affected," Mr Maxwell said.

It was not yet possible to determine how much of the crop would be wiped out and how much is downgraded due to the onset of re-sprouting, or premature germination, resulting in lower yields.

Read the story in the Melbourne Age - “Wild weather: Monster storm threatens 20 per cent of Australia's wheat crop.”