Bega resident and teacher Vivian Harris marks her 100th climate strike on Friday, July 9.
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She decided to regularly sit in Littleton Gardens on Fridays for two hours with her signs after being inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
"I already had my personal carbon footprint pretty low at that point, but realised I needed to do more," she said.
The first time she sat with her signs was in January 2019. Ms Harris sat for the whole six hours between walking her granddaughter to school and back.
She described feeling a sense of fear and intimidation before her first strike as she had only ever protested in a group setting before.
As a new resident to the area, she said the fact that she did not know anyone helped her to overcome her fear, but was still worried for her personal safety and scared to talk to strangers. "I felt so sick the first time I did it."
"It's silly in hindsight, but those feelings were very strong at the time. I just started doing it and kept on doing it from there," said Ms Harris.
She dropped from six hours to two hours when she had to start homeschooling her granddaughter in 2020. Her granddaughter also often joins her to strike during school holidays.
Ms Harris said that sitting in the park with her signs allows her to chat to people in a non-confronting and peaceful manner about the need to "immediately reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
She said she was driven by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2018 Report on the devastating impact of even 1.5 degrees of warming to the planet, however limiting global warming to even 1.5 degrees requires "unprecedented" and extremely steep cuts in global emissions.
The report stated that at current rates of emissions, it is likely that the world will exceed the 1.5°C limit in the next few decades which will significantly impact the earth and its inhabitants.
The report suggested that the world must now prepare for the wide range of adverse effects on natural and man-made systems and on human society which are very likely to occur.
Ms Harris said her conversations with people always try to offer solutions about what people can actually do so they do not just feel a sense of great hopelessness when looking at the scale of the issue.
"I have had very few climate change deniers come and speak to me," said Ms Harris, "most people understand there is a problem, but can't see a path forward for themselves or society."
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Ms Harris takes a number of steps in her personal life to reduce her impact such as using her bike, refusing to take flights, low-waste food shopping, using renewable energy and only purchasing second-hand clothing.
Although she advocates for reducing your personal environmental impact, she said it is not enough and that systemic change needs to come in all areas from policy makers through civil protest.
"The fossil fuel companies have thrown billions into this to muddy the waters, they've thrown billions of dollars into donations to politicians. It's not an equal fight here."
But she said, "you have to keep moving on an individual and collective basis, otherwise the anxiety and despair gets to you."
She felt her conversations with people left them feeling more empowered and equipped with the resources needed to connect with others who are fighting to prevent climate change.
"Even people who don't come over see me there and it raises their awareness the next time they read or watch something they may pay more attention," she said.