Yesterday afternoon, thousands of people gathered at Sydney Town Hall to protest for urgent climate action, following waves of bushfires and hazardous smoke levels that have plagued the east coast for weeks.
Many protesters arrived wielding signs featuring messages for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who was unfortunately not in attendance. We spoke to attendees to find out what they would have liked to say to Scomo, if they had the chance.
"Help the earth, and make it good."
Wesley is nine years old, and yesterday was his first protest ever. "I'm kind of scared," he told The Feed. "Well, I'm scared of seeing fires and stuff."
He says he was motivated to come along and even make his own sign because "I wanted to help the planet a little bit more, because the earth is in really big sickness."
Wesley is nine years old. Yesterday, he attended his first protest. Source: The Feed
If Scott Morrison was here, he knows what he'd like to say.
"I'd say help the earth and make it good."
"I haven't been able to breathe properly for two weeks and I'm getting a little bit sick of it."
Zina and Natasha are in their early twenties, and have been to a few climate protests already. They're still showing up, because as Natasha put it, "the government consistently ignores that climate change is a real thing."
"We're now suffering the consequences, which is pretty much unbreathable air. I haven't been able to breathe properly for two weeks and I'm getting a little bit sick of it, so I'm here."
If Scott Morrison was around, that's what Natasha would like to tell him.
Zina and Natasha are fed up with being unable to breathe due to bushfire smoke. Source: The Feed
I would really like to be able to breathe again, so do something.
"Or just like, wake up a bit and maybe make a different policy that's more renewable and sustainable for our future," Zina added.
A protester expresses frustration with Scott Morrison's climate policy during the bushfire season. Source: The Feed
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"We need to be leading by example"
Anne and Sarah are both high school science teachers. Yesterday's rally was the first environmental protest either of them have attended -- "I think when they've held them before it's been on a school day, and because we're teachers haven't been able to attend," Sarah told The Feed, though some of her students have.
Anne and Sarah are high school science teachers. They say they felt compelled to join their students in protest. Source: The Feed
It's because of their jobs that the pair felt obligated to show up yesterday.
"We're both science teachers, and we tell our students to be activists, so we thought we should actually be activists as well," is how Anne put it.
We have our students in year eight do a huge project on sustainability, so we thought it was time that we actually stood up to be counted as well. It's important.
"There is no planet B, and we're really not doing a great job with planet A. "
As for what the pair would say to Scott Morrison, they had a few ideas.
"I would like him to have a climate policy," Anne said. "I'd like him to accept that that many scientists can't actually be wrong. There's enough evidence now that climate change is having a huge impact on lots of weather events, and it's time to actually have a policy that addresses that."
"We can't keep saying 'oh well, we're such a small population, it doesn't really matter'. Every individual matters."
Sarah agreed. "We need to be leading by example," she said.
"Other countries are managing to do solar and get their energy from there, and we're still going down the coal route. It's just awful, we just need to be changing."
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"He's acting like a lizard."
Jasper and Julian have been to quite a few climate protests now, and they're not planning on stopping any time soon.
"We're upset at the way the government has not done anything about the conditions that we're in," they told The Feed.
If Scott Morrison had showed up at the rally, the pair reckoned he'd get an earful from some pretty angry citizens.
Jasper and Julian say Scott Morrison is "acting like a lizard" on climate policy. Source: The Feed
"He'd probably end up in a bad situation, because he's not acting like a real person, he's acting like a lizard."
"It's pretty scary, the way that leaders and the people we're supposed to look up to are brushing this off like it's something silly. It's the most important thing, and it's terrifying."
Source: The Feed
Source: The Feed
"You can't just know that it's reality and not do anything."
Sienna is eleven, and like many of the other kids in attendance, yesterday's rally was her first protest.
She told The Feed she showed up because "climate change is actually a thing, and we need to do something about it."
Sienna is eleven. She says she's never seen the sky go red like it did during the bushfire smoke this week. Source: The Feed
This week in particular, she was shocked by some of the things she saw -- "the fires especially and like the smoke, and how red the sun was because of the smoke, and things like that." In her lifetime, she had never seen the sun turn that colour.
If Scott Morrison is listening, Sienna has one message for him.
"You need to make a change, and you can't just know that it's reality and not do anything," she said.
Source: The Feed
Source: The Feed
"I'd tell him I don't want to die a virgin, and ask him if he can help out with that."
Matthew is 20 years old, and showed up to yesterday's rally because he's got a growing list of worries.
"I'm concerned with the air quality, our future, what we're going to do about our energy, and the climate crisis," he told The Feed.
If he ran into Scott Morrison, Matthew would get straight to the point.
Matthew wants Scott Morrison to take action on climate change before it's too late. Source: The Feed
I'd tell him I don't want to die a virgin, and ask him if he can help out with that.
"The inaction is just getting alarming."
Izzy and her sister Caitlin have also been to a fair few protests by now, and they told The Feed they're pretty fed up with Scott Morrison's behaviour at the moment.
"Just the total inaction. It's getting way serious -- all the water restrictions, the beds of smoke, it's all becoming so visible, and the inaction is just getting alarming."
"The inaction is just getting alarming," says Izzy, who's concerned about the climate crisis. Source: The Feed
If ScoMo had showed up, Izzy knows exactly what she'd tell him.
"Oh my god, just listen. Yeah, I dunno, the religious freedom thing is not important right now, there's so much other shit he could be doing."
Caitlin agreed.
I think the government could be doing so much more -- there's so many missed opportunities, and it's just pure ignorance at this point that they're not doing anything.
"The people are crying. The people are taking to Facebook, they're taking to the streets -- how could you ignore them?"
