
I’m a reluctant climate activist. I was brought up thinking that protests and marches are just for scruffy loonies and rent-a-crowds. As a marine scientist, I’m methodical and factual.
I prefer being underwater to being in a crowd of humans. Biology and statistics make more sense to me than sociology and politics.
Yet here I am, a lead facilitator of my city’s youth-led Global #ClimateStrike, and a co-founder of Australian Parents for Climate Action – a growing national network of parents, grandparents and caregivers calling on our government to act now, for a liveable future.
I find myself asking, how did I get here?
During the past decade, I’ve watched my favourite places on Earth – coral reefs and polar regions – being decimated by climate change. And despite the climate crisis being the greatest threat to human health, our economy and human civilisation itself, it’s being denied, downplayed and ignored by those elected and paid to lead us.
Side note…Watch Greta Thunberg’s UN climate change speech. Post continues after video.
I’d signed petitions, shared posts on social media, reduced my personal carbon footprint, even contacted my elected representatives. As the crisis has deepened, our governments have continued to fall short of the vital role they need to play. And I have realised the part I was playing was not nearly big enough.