Monique Zonneveld, Australia - Youth Climate Activist

Environment   Nov 18, 2020 by Monique, Townsville, Australia

A youth Climate Activist in Australia is Ambrose Hayes from Sydney, New South Wales. He is protesting against the Australian Governments inaction towards the climate change crisis and that they plan to invest in gas plants as a COVID-19 recovery plan. He organised the Australian School Strike 4 Climate protest in September 2020 because he wants to show people around Australia and the world that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. The Countries that have benefitted and that use the most fossil fuels in the world are China, The United States and India. These countries consume around 45% of the world’s fossil fuels by weight, according to the Global Material Flow Database developed by the UN Environment Program. The Places that are most effected by climate change are The Arctic, Africa, small islands and Asian Megadeltas are the regions that are most likely to be the most effected by climate change. Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change due to existing stresses such as intense flooding, droughts and change in water supplies and the water quality.  These places are different to the largest consumers of fossil fuels. Everyone in the world is affected by climate change but the most vulnerable countries are Haiti and Timor-leste who depend on the climate and natural resources for food and income. These include severe tropical storms which have caused erosion and changes in land used for agriculture, as developed countries have more access to fossil fuels and renewable alternatives that means that they have the chance to help the lesser developed and struggling countries. Everyone in the country needs to do their part to reducing the carbon emissions by 45% or more before it is too late.  Some changes that Australia could do to reduce our carbon footprint would be to switch from using and exporting coal to renewable sources such as solar power, wind turbines and convert the energy of the waves in the northern territory into renewable sources. Here is a link to some renewable energy concepts in Australia: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364032111000426. At Pimlico State High School we have installed solar panels onto the roofs of two of our buildings in order to lower our schools’ energy footprint another change that could happen is to have a compost area for the tuckshop, similar to the one at James Cook University where they can put their non-animal organic products that don’t get used, this would mean that there would be less waste products from the school just going into land fill when, once it has been naturally converted to compost it can be used on the garden beds and areas around the school. I believe that with time and effort we as a world will be able to reduce our carbon emissions and to repair the damage due to climate change. 

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