Crowds around the country are gathering for the latest round of strikes.

From Whangārei to Invercargill, thousands are expected to take to the streets in Friday’s climate strike.

But it is not just about the climate crisis: The event is led by a coalition including Toitū Te Tiriti, Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa, and School Strike 4 Climate.

They have six demands. To keep the ban on oil and gas exploration, end the Fast Track Approvals Bill, toitū te Tiriti o Waitangi, climate education for all, lower the voting age to 16 and to “free Palestine”.

  • Ilovethebomb
    3·
    7 months ago

    The youth voting age thing makes sense, or at least it makes sense that a youth organisation would support that.

    With the US military thing, like any military, they do a lot more than just dropping bombs on brown people, they do a lot of logistics and humanitarian work, including humanitarian aid being delivered to Gaza by both air and sea, search and rescue, and even a lot of scientific research.

    • liv
      3·
      7 months ago

      Yes and Jimmy Saville raised money for charity. :p

      Seriously though, I got the impression they were protesting the war on Gaza and the use of environmentally destructive ordinance, not the actual existence of the US Military.

      • Ilovethebomb
        1·
        7 months ago

        My point was most of their carbon emissions are probably from doing the more useful stuff.

        • liv
          3·
          7 months ago

          The fact the US military probably pollute in other ways isn’t really that relevant to the direct effects of Israel’s war in Gaza though.

          Here’s a quick example of the kind of things people are looking at (this estimate doesn’t look at things like forever chemicals and rebuild costs so it’s quite a low estimate):

          The vast majority (over 99%) of the 281,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2 equivalent) estimated to have been generated in the first 60 days following the 7 October Hamas attack can be attributed to Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by researchers in the UK and US.

          According to the study, which is based on only a handful of carbon-intensive activities and is therefore probably a significant underestimate, the climate cost of the first 60 days of Israel’s military response was equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tonnes of coal.

          The analysis, which is yet to be peer reviewed, includes CO2 from aircraft missions, tanks and fuel from other vehicles, as well as emissions generated by making and exploding the bombs, artillery and rockets. It does not include other planet-warming gases such as methane.

          https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/emissions-gaza-israel-hamas-war-climate-change