Albany students to march up York Street for climate change action

Fed up with the lack of government action, dozens of Albany students have decided to take things into their own hands and march up York Street to call for action on climate change.

These students will join thousands of other teenagers across the world in the Global Climate Strike on Friday, three days before the United Nations Emergency Climate Summit.

Students from Albany Senior High School, North Albany Senior High School, Great Southern Grammar and St Joseph’s College will gather at Anzac Peace Park at midday before marching to a rally at the Town Square.

Noah Morcombe, 16, and Tilly Rolfe, 14, will be at the strike to demand action from their local, State and Federal government representatives.

“As a young person, we are not allowed to vote to make a difference in our policy and this is our chance to get noticed by politicians and government,” Tilly said.

“Currently we’re building a seawall here in Middleton Beach just to combat rising sea levels, but our local government, State Government and even Federal Government have failed to declare a climate emergency to this day,” said Noah.

They refuted the suggestion the strike was an elaborate excuse for students to skip school.

“If we want to skip school we can just call in sick, we wouldn’t be putting this much effort into creating something only to wag school,” Noah said.

Great Southern Grammar principal Mark Sawle said students would be marked as absent if they did not attend school on Friday.

On behalf of Albany Senior High School and North Albany Senior High School, Education Department schools deputy director-general Stephen Baxter said he encouraged students to take interest in climate change, but urged them to stay in school.

Despite receiving no support from their school, Noah and Tilly, together with hundreds of students from Albany, will still be attending the rally on Friday

“We learn about climate change every day and how it’s going to affect us in the future, it’s all in the curriculum,” Noah said. “But somehow the Government are not even acknowledging that there is a climate emergency.”