Who cares? Thousands of year-13s are moving on and will no doubt go on to wonderful and useful careers. Why does “Stuffed” think anybody cares what a tiny minority of ill-informed, rowdy followers (please note – NOT leaders – trendy followers), are going to do? Why do they qualify for a special mention?
The headline reads:
“What the young climate activists did next: School’s out for strike leaders”
Seems the Year 13s who led the strikes have left school and, according to Stuff, are “handing over the baton to younger organisers.”
“Next month, Monica Lim will depart Hamilton for Wellington, where she plans on studying a combined law and arts degree, majoring in political science and environmental studies.
It’s a path she said was “100 per cent” influenced by her work on the school strikes. While she’d always been interested in feminism and advocacy, the strike was the first thing she’d channelled her energy into that really felt powerful.
“This movement has really shown people that they aren’t helpless and what they do actually does make a change,” she said.
Good luck Monica. Your CV is forever on file on the internet for prospective employers to examine when you (and several hundred others) are lined up for a job in your chosen profession. In the real world, you might be called on to actually explain why you felt “powerful” channelling your energy into this strike and why it was the “first thing you’d channelled your energy into”. You might also be asked to provide some evidence for your hugely general assertion that this movement has really shown “people that they aren’t helpless and what they do actually does make a change”.
I’m not sure how many people feel they’re helpless and I’m not sure what you feel you’ve managed to change. Despite your best efforts, nature will continue to do what nature does.
Rachel Collins is a 17-year-old from Lower Hutt who wants to encourage people to buy secondhand and reject “fast fashion”.
“With over-consumption one of the drivers behind the climate crisis, people need to consider what they’re buying and whether they really need it, Rachel said. As well as trying to change the fashion industry from the inside out, she plans on carrying on her activist work: “Activism is the only way to make people listen”.
“Over-consumption one of the drivers behind the climate crisis”. Wow. That’s a new one. “Activism is the only way to make people listen”. Good luck with that. You’ll find out that you can’t make people listen. People may be persuaded by a good, sound, fact-based argument. Activism? Not so much.
17-year-old Marcail Parkinson we’ve heard about before – quite a few times.
Enough said.
Zoe de Malmanche, 18, from Mount Maunganui, said getting involved with the strikes “massively” broadened her understanding of climate change and shaped what she plans to do now.
“As for the idea that climate strikers’ time would have been better spent in school, she said what she gained from the strike had been “so much more powerful” than what she learnt at school.
“Kids go to the strike, they have conversations – the more people are having conversations about people, the more people are learning.”
I guess that depends entirely on who you’re having the conversations with Zoe, and how well informed they are.
I love to see young people getting involved and trying to change the wrongs of mankind. I just wish they could focus that energy and enthusiasm on some of the real wrongs rather than being swept away by the sensational zealotry of a fabricated Greta Thunberg fairy tale that will ultimately end in tragedy.
If you haven’t seen it, please do watch the Greta Thunberg expose.