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.”

The oceans are in danger. We need to do more than ban plastic straws

Over the past year, the movement to ban plastic straws has seen tremendous success. Major companies including Starbucks have decided to eliminate them in their stores, and some metropolitan areas have passed citywide bans. This consumer and environmental trend has been an encouraging example of collective action on an economy-wide scale and has no doubt helped keep plastic out of our oceans and out of marine life. But ultimately, these actions are small steps toward solving a massive problem. To truly save the ocean, we must take serious action to halt climate change on a global scale — and soon.

A paddle boarder gets in some exercise in the early
 morning off the beach at the Isle of Palms, S.C. 

Our oceans are critical to every part of our lives — they feed us, transport us, secure our borders, employ us, give us oxygen and inspire us — but week after week, headlines reflect gloom and doom. Coral reefs around the world are dying; rising seas are flooding coastal communities and threatening to overwhelm some of the world’s busiest airports; fishermen from New England to Alaska are hauling in empty nets; and intensifying storms threaten not just our coastlines but inland communities as well. Climate change is a major contributor to all these problems, and yet the ocean is far too often left out of conversations about climate solutions.

Read the story from The Washington Post by Joe Podesta  - “The oceans are in danger. We need to do more than ban plastic straws.”