YOUNG environmental activists continued their calls for climate action last Friday, striking from school at the Bendigo Library Gardens from 11.30am to 5.30pm.<\/p>\n
Seventeen-year-old strike student leader and member of the Bendigo Youth Council, Ildi Clemens, said it was important the youth-led school strikes are held in regional towns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more awareness of the issue the better,\u201d she said. \u201cMore local politicians and members of parliament can see that the community is on board with what the metropolitan areas are protesting for.<\/p>\n
\u201cYouth are the ones who will be the leaders of the future so we\u2019re expressing what we want, and we want to start seeing the action happening now. We want a safe environment to grow up in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The strike made four main assertions surrounding a wider demand for the Federal Government to fund young people\u2019s futures, not gas, and Ms Clemens said she hoped the strike would \u201cengage the Bendigo community in the action that\u2019s taking place over the rest of the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my responsibility to protect our future of this generation because our government is not acting, and they need to act now especially in the aftermath of COVID-19 and working towards the recovery,\u201d Ms Clemens said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be funding gas, we should be looking to more renewables and funding our future.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreta Thunberg started a movement which really inspired students all over the globe which really shows the importance of the issue and how large scale it is and how it\u2019s a big concern for everybody, not just a small cluster of students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think every town needs to have action like this happening to really kick up a fuss and gain attention from the politicians,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
YOUNG environmental activists continued their calls for climate action last Friday, striking from school at the Bendigo Library Gardens from 11.30am to 5.30pm. Seventeen-year-old strike student leader and member of the Bendigo Youth Council, Ildi Clemens, said it was important the youth-led school strikes are held in regional towns. \u201cThe more awareness of the issue […]<\/p>\n