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.”

Climate Change Protest Draws Thousands of Australian Students.

MELBOURNE, Australia — As wildfires raged across the country, a heat wave again threatened the Great Barrier Reef and a mining giant announced it would push ahead with a huge coal project, thousands of students across Australia quit school for the day on Friday to protest government inaction on climate change.

Milou Albrecht, 14, center, speaking to students attending
 a rally for climate change action at the Old Treasury
Building in Melbourne, Australia, on Friday.

The students — ranging in age from 5 to 18 — came from more than 200 schools to demand that the federal government block construction of the Adani Carmichael coal mine, block any new coal or gas projects and require 100 percent renewable energy use by 2030.

“I am here because I am terrified,” Harriet O’Shea Carre, 14, told a crowd of thousands of student marchers outside the Old Treasury Building in Melbourne. Protesters spilled out onto the road with signs saying “civil disobedience requires no permission slip” and “don’t be a fossil fool.”

Read The New York Times story by Livia Albeck-Ripka - “Climate Change Protest Draws Thousands of Australian Students.”