February 21, 2019
Climate inaction spirring rangatahi
A former Green MP says New Zealand school children joining their peers overseas and striking to demand action on climate change may be what’s needed to wake up politicians to the seriousness of the issue.
Kevin Hague, who now heads Forest and Bird, says Greta Thunberg, who skipped school to protest outside the Swedish parliament, is inspiring rangatahi around the world.
He says politicians have said climate change is a serious problem, but rather than take serious action they seem to treat it as just another public relations problem.
"That’s what they’ve tried to do with climate change – 'yes yes, very important, let's send that signal,' but they haven't grasped that this is so substantively important that it requires substantive and urgent action, and that's what's driving these young people," he says.
Kevin Hague also welcomed the work Māori climate change commissioner Donna Awatere is doing, as government has so far been talking past Māori on the issue.
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