The passionate plea of nine-year-old Evan Gavens of Anglesea to take action on climate change for the sake of all young people was given voice in Federal Parliament this week (20 Oct).
Through local Federal Member Libby Coker, Evan told Parliament that people need to stop polluting this world because it is bad for our environment, destroying the atmosphere and making it unhealthy.
Libby said she had chosen Evans speech to read to the Australian Parliaments House of Representatives from many submitted to her by young people across her Corangamite electorate, as part of the Raise Our Voice Australia campaign to increase the diversity of voices in decision making institutions.
I was so impressed by the standard of the speeches submitted by young people from cross my electorate. It tells me that we have an articulate, thoughtful generation of potential future community leaders coming along, Ms Coker said.
Evans speech especially caught my eye because it resonated with my own thoughts on protecting the environment. He touched on promoting renewable energy, reducing carbon emissions, and preserving our natural environment.
Evans speech finished with a call to action please take action for the people of my age. Thats a sentiment everyone, especially those with young children, would echo and support.
Although I chose to read Evans speech I could have read many others. They were of an extremely high standard. Topics ranged from the need for improved local sporting facilities, to reconciliation with first nations people and hopes for the nations future.
In Libbys speech she also mentioned another young person in her electorate, Aviva-Luna Phieler, a Year 7 student at Oberon Secondary College.
Last Friday, Aviva-Luna visited my office and created a chalk artwork on the pavement as part of a School Strike 4 Climate action demonstration., Libby said.
She had a strong message for the Australian Government take action urgently on climate change, or we will experience more extreme weather events such as droughts, bushfires and floods in the future and lose even more biodiversity.
I congratulate Aviva-Luna for her passion and advocacy. She is just one of many young Australians who are distressed about the planet they will inherit, due to the irresponsible inaction of the federal government.
We must give our young people hope for a cleaner and brighter future and avoid catastrophic climate change. We can only do that by decarbonising our economy and investing heavily in renewable energy to contain temperature rises to less than 1.5 degrees.
Unless we act quickly to reduce carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius will be exceeded by the 2030s.
The significance of climate change and how we as a nation respond to that challenge is not lost on our children.
I urge the Liberal-National Government not to let our youth down, as they have repeatedly over the last eight years on climate and the environment.
Nine-year-old Evan Gavens speech:
Its time to stop polluting!
By Evan
I am 9 years old and worried about the world I am growing up in. We need to stop polluting this world. It is bad for our environment, destroying the atmosphere and making it unhealthy.
I think the best way to stop polluting is to do helpful things for our environment. There are loads of things we can do including making and using renewable energy such as solar, use of electric cars and building up not across.
Renewable energy reduces the use of fossil fuels that create carbon emissions and destroys our natural seas and land.
Instead of using fossil fuel cars we should use electric cars that rely on renewable energy.
I think we should build up not across so we dont continue to destroy our natural environment. By building up it means we dont use up farming land and destroy more trees. Trees are important for catching carbon emissions.
In conclusion, I strongly believe we should take more actions to stop pollution and save our environment now. Please take action now for the people of my age.
