Kids these days, huh? Entitled bunch of selfish brats, always playing the Fortnite and flossing and taking direct action against climate change, almost like they’re personally invested in the planet being habitable in 50 years. God, it’s all about THEM.
And that’s why the prime minister is very, very angry about school students planning to strike on Friday in protest at his government’s hard-won and meticulously executed refusal to reduce CO2 emissions, embrace renewable energy, or anything else that might help tip the planet back toward future habitability.
Hey, remember that time when the current PM was chuckling about rising sea levels with his pals? Mmm, that’s good stuff-seriously-taking.
He was deeply unimpressed when Greens MP Adam Bandt raised the upcoming strike in Parliament and especially disliked the imputation that he was perhaps not absolutely one hundred per cent committed to the issue of climate change.
“Climate change is a very real and serious issue which demands the attention of governments at all levels,” insisted Scott “I Held Up A Piece Of Coal In Parliament And Talked About How Great It Is” Morrison.
“It has the attention of this government, through the Emissions Reduction Fund, the renewable energy target, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, our Snowy 2.0 initiative, energy efficiency measures, and our commitment to 26 per cent of an emissions reduction target, which we remain committed to.”
So: a target their own data can’t achieve, a currently theoretical energy project, and two bodies the government of which he was part attempted to axe. Strong commitment!
The new Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, was the man who laughed as he tossed a lump of coal in Parliament. The dirty prop was supplied by industry lobby group, the Minerals Council of Australia. Climate damage is #HereNow. We need climate leadership. pic.twitter.com/NiZGlo0x78
— ACF (@AusConservation) August 24, 2018
And while the PM might prefer that this was the end of it, in a perfect example of the Streisand Effect Scorrison managed to take what was looking in danger of being small and easily ignored protest and transform it into something with national and international attention – including coverage from CNN.
“Each day I send my kids to school and I know other members’ kids should also go to school but we do not support our schools being turned into parliaments,” he fumed.
And that’s an unfair insult: for one thing, unlike parliament, these children are attempting to do something about climate change.