Locals are being asked to join a climate strike taking place in Wānaka today (Friday April 5).

Students from Te Kura O Tititea Mt Aspiring College (MAC) will participate in the School Strike for Climate, which is taking place at a range of locations across New Zealand including Wellington, Auckland, Dunedin, and Hamilton.

“This strike is striving for climate action so that this government cannot take us backward and instead, take us forward,” a MAC climate strike student organiser said. 

“The strike also includes other demands covering Te Tiriti and human rights.”

The majority of MAC’s Team Green (MAC’s environmental group) students and Sustainability Committee members are expected to take part, they said.

Wao Aotearoa is encouraging locals to join the students at today’s strike, which will start at MAC at 1pm. 

“We need to support our youth to make sure their voice is heard,” Wao founder Monique Kelly told the Wānaka App. 

“Younger generations will feel the impacts of climate change much more than the older generations,” she said. 

“Without the right to vote, climate strikes have been their way of voicing their opinion and getting the climate conversation front and centre in communities.” 

Monique said the School Strike for Climate movement has had a “huge impact” on momentum towards climate action since 2018.

“At the grassroots level, we're really seeing businesses, organisations and individuals take up the challenge to tackle the problem, which is really encouraging.”

The MAC representative said the strike “is incredibly important to many of us in the student body because it's our only way as youth to try to strive for change in the government”. 

“The government holds an awful lot of power and with this new one we are already seeing potential issues.”

The Wānaka School Strike 4 Climate will begin at Lismore Park outside the entrance to MAC at 1pm today and follow the Lismore Park pathway and then continue into Wānaka township.

PHOTO: Wānaka App