This week, Lauren Waugh and I were given the opportunity to speak about climate change at Canberra Girls’ Grammar School. The school shares PSP’s belief in the importance of the voice of youth in the climate debate, and were keen for the students to learn a little more about this important issue.
We were given half an hour to speak in front of the year ten and eleven girls, who were eager to hear what we had to say and made us feel very welcome. I explained the science of climate change, and then Lauren talked about the policy.
We also spent a large chunk of our time talking about the Pacific. PSP is often asked “why the Pacific?” For us, it’s simple: small Pacific Island nations will be some of the earliest and hardest hit by climate change. We feel that Australia has an obligation to support our Pacific neighbours, and to help them achieve a just outcome from international negotiations, such as COP15 in Copenhagen this December.
Although Girls’ Grammar has done a great job making sure the kids are informed about issues such as climate change, they had lots of fantastic questions for us. We were also approached at the end by students keen to know what they can do for climate change.
All in all, we were very excited to be given the chance to share our experiences with the Girls’ Grammar community, and hope to speak at more schools over the next few months.
To have PSP speak at your school, contact us at team@youthprojectsurvival.org
By Emily Davies, Canberra
Girls' Grammar Students Tara Dear, Christabel Richards-Neville, Rebecca Richardson, Mirja McClean Engstrom
Thanks for coming to speak. Was a great way to spend assembly!!!