World we leave is for them

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Associate education minister David Seymour said students should  turn up to school and get a good education if they want to effect real change in the world, instead of protesting during school hours.

“If students feel strongly about sending a message, they could have marched on Tuesday when there was a nationwide teacher-only day, or during the upcoming school holidays,” he said.

“My expectation is that schools will treat students protesting today as explained but unjustified absences.”

Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick described Seymour’s stance as “straight up embarrassing” and said “the world doesn’t stop where the classroom door stops” . . . “The energy from our young people is that they want a healthy planet and a healthy climate for the future.”

She said there was a “fundamental recognition” from young people of a need for “intersectional justice”.

“That means realising the social and environmental inequities we are seeing play out are products of the same system. That system has to change, and that is what our rangatahi are demanding.”

On June 9 last year, Greta Thunberg announced on Twitter: “Today, I graduate from school, which means I’ll no longer be able to school strike for the climate.”

I say climate change denier David Seymour is exactly the wrong person to be speaking out on this issue. From a RNZ 2023 election report last September, he said his party would stop “wasteful climate change spending”, repeal the Zero Carbon Act, and repeal “the oil and gas ban” — a “bizarre ban on offshore mitigation”, as Seymour labelled it.

The School Strike for Climate message was to “raise awareness about the urgent need for climate action and to demand meaningful policy changes to combat the climate crisis”.

I thank Greta Thunberg for all she has done.

I also thank all the children who took part in this most worthwhile event. The world we leave is for them.

Bob Hughes