One teenager has spoken up about her thoughts on what the future holds for her generation when they have to grapple with the increasing impacts of climate change.
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Anna Browne is a student of Bega High School who was eager to become part of Clean Energy For Eternity’s human sign in Tathra on Sunday, September 30.
“I’m pretty close to the environment, I go surfing and I really love looking at the environment – I live in the bush,” the 13-year-old said.
“So when I hear about the things that are going on, it always affects me. I’m actually interested in what politicians are doing.”
The Tanja resident was disappointed in the lack of interest by the Australian government when it came to addressing environmental issues and thought most of her friends were also concerned about climate change.
“I think a lot of our government at the moment thinks the GDP, economic growth and things like that represent the success of our country and I don’t think that’s true,” Anna said.
She said tourism in Australia was very important to the economy, as the country featured such drawcards as the Great Barrier Reef.
Also, she said agriculture was hugely important and it relied on rainfall which, along with the reef, was something that was impacted upon by global warming.
“We’ve had a bit of an impact already so I think we need to have to adapt to that and we need to save our environment,” Anna said.
“I’m worried if we do keep going at this rate we will lose so much of our biodiversity.”
She said Sunday’s human sign, which was formed by about 2000 people at Lawrence Park in Tathra, was a great event.
“I think it was good to see so many people for the same purpose,” she said.
“I hope as a community we can work out a way to limit our impact.”
She thought what she would like to see more of was houses and buildings try to use sustainable principals as part of their design, such as incorporating solar panels and sustainable materials.
“I think that could make a big difference,” she said.
Albert McKnight
Journalist at Bega District News.
Journalist at Bega District News.
