Yesterday the Make Poverty History coalition (over 60 groups in Australia working together to increase aid, make trade fair and relieve debt) ran an event aiming to show high school students the links between climate change, poverty and development. I was delighted to be invited to speak at the event on behalf of the AYCC, along with David Toovey, CEO of the Oaktree Foundation. I spoke about my experience going to Bali for the United Nations climate change conference last December.
I spoke about people I met in Bali who are feeling the impacts of climate change first-hand, such as Clare Anterea from Kiribati, who is seeing her islands (which are only 2 metres above sea level) disappear. I also met Ursula Rakova from the Carteret Islands in PNG, who is having to move her entire village to Bouganville on the mainland becau
se they can no longer grow crops on their island. And the issue hits even closer to home – Jenny from the Torres Strait told me how her people will not only lose their homes to climate change, but will lose their culture when their sacred sites and ancestral burial places go underwater.
The Make Poverty History event was a great way for us to share these kinds of stories with high school students, to show that climate change isn’t just an environmental issue – it’s about people.
The event wasn’t all doom and gloom though – the students were definitely fired up to ‘take it personally’ and take action on climate change to make sure no other people like Clare, Ursula and Jenny lose their homes and way of life.
