Students to skip strike, plant trees for climate change

Friday, 17 May 2019

Young climate change activists in Marlborough are to skip the national school strike this week, opting to plant trees in their 'own time' instead.

A nationwide strike is planned in conjunction with the global movement 'School Strike for Climate' on Friday, May 24.

Seventeen destinations across New Zealand will participate, from Kerikeri to Hamilton to Nelson. Marlborough's young climate activists - known as the Climate Action Youth Team - will not be participating.

Marlborough Boys' College student Lennox Crowe said students were skipping the strike in favour of 'something more constructive and environmentally friendly'.

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'Some of the criticism we got last time was that if you want to protest something and you are passionate about it, you do it in your own time,' Crowe said.

'So that's why we're doing tree planting on the 26th [Sunday] … and that will help more towards climate change.'

Zoe Luffman, Sophia Wills, George Varney and Lennox Crowe are planting trees, not skipping school, for climate change.

Crowe added the group felt the nationwide rally was a little too close to the previous climate action strike, which took place on March 15.

Marlborough Girls' College student Sophia Wills said the group contacted Grovetown Lagoon, which needed 500 trees planted by the end of the month.

'We thought it would be a good action to plant those trees and show that we are serious about doing something environmental,' Wills said.

Year 13 student George Varney said the Climate Action Youth Team was quite separate from their respective schools, which had no influence on their decision to skip Friday's strike.

'If we get involved with the school, they can then control what we're doing, and then we have to represent the school and wear the uniform,' Varney said.

'But our target audience for any initiatives we do will be school-aged kids and youth in Marlborough.'

Friday's nationwide strike demands all parties support a Zero Carbon Act from Parliament, with the ambitious goal of halving carbon emissions by 2030 and to be zero carbon by 2040.

Marlborough students at the foot of the Seymour Square Clock Tower during the last strike in March.

Another demand was for the Government to declare a 'climate emergency' to accurately reflect the magnitude of the crisis.

School Strike for Climate spokesperson Raven Maeder said the movement supported school communities taking action in whatever way they chose, even if they opted not to strike.

'For some students skipping class often is not something they want to do, and that's completely fine,' said Maeder, a fourth year student at Victoria University of Wellington.

'We just welcome the fact that they want to be involved in the movement in some way.'

Maeder said striking had its benefits, but was not the only tactic school students could employ.

'There are thousands of students around New Zealand that are calling for more ambitious action to safeguard their future, and striking is a really successful method of being listened to by people in power,' Maeder said.

Students in Christchurch's Cathedral Square at the school strike for climate change on March 15.

'[But] we've made it really clear this time that communities can choose how they want to respond to this national day of action.

'Some people are opting to do things like tree plantings or letter writings, and that's completely up to the communities.

'Both tactics are valid and a really important way of drawing attention to the issue and creating change.'

Crowe, Wills and Varney said they had not ruled out future strikes in Marlborough.

They were expected to attend the Wellington Climate Change Conference at the weekend just gone. The conference had a series of workshops and speakers booked, including conservationist and chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall.