Fridays for Future Te Ūpoko O Te Ika / Wellington is supporting School Strike 4 Climate Wellington’s climate strike on 23 September 2022.
“After four months’ protesting outside Fonterra’s Wellington office to raise awareness of the damaging effects of intensive dairying, we want to show our support for School Strike for Climate’s latest protest action,” says Caz Sheldon, spokesperson for Fridays for Future Te Ūpoko O Te Ika / Wellington.
“What we want from Fonterra is what School Strike 4 Climate wants: ban the use of synthetic nitrogen on farms now and halve the dairy herd. Our agricultural industries’ overuse of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser is destroying New Zealand’s soil ecosystems and waterways, and enabling intensive dairying, and the huge numbers of dairy cows is the main source of New Zealand’s methane emissions. Methane is an extremely dangerous and powerful climate-heating gas many times worse than carbon dioxide.
“We also strongly agree with School Strike for Climate’s demands to make public transport free; invest properly in physically separate safe cycling lanes and walking paths; end all oil and gas exploration and extraction in New Zealand; and invest in a just transition.
“If the government takes these demands seriously by immediately implementing policies and enforcing new legislation, New Zealand will finally start to reduce climate emissions — which are actually still increasing – and we would all be a lot healthier too!
“We urge and invite everyone to join us in support of School Strike 4 Climate on Friday 23 September, at 12 noon at Parliament.”
