Global Climate Strike: Shepparton – Shepparton Interfaith Network

Shepparton Interfaith Network supports the climate strike on Friday, 20 September 2019, in Maude Street Mall. As people of spirit and faith, we are joining the youth climate strikers to call for sweeping, urgent climate action and to make sure that our response is grounded in the core values shared by all our traditions: love, justice, and compassion.

What do the students want and how will these strikes differ to those in March?

The Australia students have three demands for governments.

1. No new coal, oil and gas projects, including the Adani mine.

2. 100% renewable energy generation and exports by 2030.

3. Fund a just transition and job creation for all fossil-fuel workers and communities.

The third point is a new feature for the Australian movement and particularly important for these strikes.

The strong presence of workers at these strikes is about trying to end the pitting of climate action and the needs of the economy against each other. Instead, the young activists want constructive action to support workers in carbon-intensive industries as economies transition to net zero emissions.

Why are these strikes happening?

Young people are anxious about what their future looks like in a world that is failing to stall the climate crisis.

In the last week alone in Australia, bushfires have torn through Queensland and New South Wales in the first week of spring. They have been described as unprecedented.

Last summer brought a wave of natural disasters and record-breaking heat. For the first eight months of the year, the country’s mean temperature was the second warmest on record. Mean maximums were the warmest on record over the same period and mean minimums the equal-sixth warmest.

Authorities are warning of a grim outlook into the coming summer if current dry conditions and above average temperatures persist across much of the country.