Dear Prime Minister

‘Mummy, what did coral look like?
Did polar bears really exist?
Was the sky ever blue?
Mummy, where are all the stars?
When did all the trees die?
Why can’t I see past the smog?’

When I was little I dreamed of growing up, where I would travel, who I would meet and what I would be. Now I lay awake at night wondering… Do I have a future on this planet? How can we stop this? Is anyone doing anything? Should I be scared? These thoughts are so overwhelming and scary I want to curl up in the corner and block the world out, but I can’t because everyone else already is. Even our world leaders refuse to take action, some even denying its existence at all “Fake news”

Hold UP
Dear Prime Minister
Students stream onto the streets
Crying for the change they seek
We cannot go on like this they say
The coal mining industry must be held at bay
We must convince those worried workers
That coal is not their future
Coal is not our future
Because if we continue to exploit coal
We have no future

We are no longer observers of change
It is occurring
Winds are stirring
Hurricanes rage
Fires rampage
through the streets
Across the plains
The polar bears moan in pain
As they drown in a sea
A sea that is is rising,
A sea that’s becoming more and more sinister
But
What would we know Mr Prime Minister?

After all, we are just stupid, ignorant little kids
We know nothing about politics
That's where you’re wrong Scott
Don’t think we don’t notice
The coal on your hands
And the gleam in your eye
Screw renewables, they can go die
Because they don’t make you the
Money money money
To satisfy
You and your buds back at Adani

Dearest Mr Morrison,
You better get this through your head
We won't back down
We won't drown
Denial and self-interest is your position
But we need to hear more about transition
We will scream until our throats bleed
Until the warning that none will heed
Falls upon someone who feels it is a necessary deed

Yours Truly,
A generation that is struggling to understand

How we are still human if we destroy our home

We keep blaming others for using too much plastic.
We keep calling out our neighbours for littering along the roads.
And yes, a polluted earth is no joke.
But the earth is what we all have in common.

Four months ago Paris’s iconic cathedral was engulfed in flames, sending plumes of black smoke across Paris’s skyline. The world was thrown into chaos, a media storm erupted. Every newspaper, TV and headline was consumed with the devastating news. But if we care about a building that’s 800 years old, shouldn’t we care at least as much about saving our 4.5 billion-year-old planet? Our planet is burning just as Notre Dame was and there are not enough firefighters trying to put it out.

That was then. Today is now And tomorrow will be too late.
Too late to save the nourishing green from burning to a crisp.
Too late to conserve the mighty oceans from leaving behind dry, cracks of the ground.
As the wind blows, sawdust fills our lungs with despair. Our reality.
The earth satisfies our needs but not our greed.
Only until we see the last tree collapsing,
The last breath of air turning black, a puff of poison.
The last fish caught in a prison of wire.
We realise that we can’t breathe money. We can’t live off rolling digits. They are meaningless when there’s nothing left.