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March 06, 2023
Pressure coming from rangatahi for climate action
Gideon Porter
Posted On March 6, 2023
Download AudioRangatahi could make the climate crisis number one issue for election.
Climate activist Mike Smith says rangatahi could make the climate crisis the number one issue for this year’s election.
Mike Smith was a speaker at the Auckland rally at Friday’s school student-led climate strike.
He says the devastating impacts of this year’s cyclones and flooding has brought the problem into sharp focus.
Many Māori communities have been severely affected, and he believes it’s an area Māori can lead and force change.
“We can be dragging the politicians and the political parties along with us. And I think we’ve seen that in a number of areas – kohanga reo, wharekura, whare wānanga – all those kinds of initiatives were Māori initiatives. So I think that our people have got good solutions. We know what the problems are. We know what the answers are. And once again I think young people are going to play a big role in this,” Mr Smith says.
He says lowering the voting age to 16 would be a game changer, as more than half of all young people think not enough is being done about climate change.
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