St Peter's pupils clock up protestover climate-change concerns

Young protesters clothed in black rubbish bags emblazoned with slogans peacefully invaded Clutha/Southland MP Bill English's Gore office yesterday urging the government to push for the implementation of climate-change measures at a global level.

The group of about 15 St Peter's College senior pupils and teachers, led by year 13 pupil Aydan Erickson (17), presented Mr English's senior electorate secretary Glenys Dickson with a ticking clock and a letter outlining the pupils' concerns.

The protest was part of the "Wake Up Call" campaign.

The initiative came about after Aydan had been selected to attend the Sir Peter Blake Youth Environment forum held in Wellington at the end of July.

"It made me very aware of some of the big global issues and the need to address them," Aydan said.

"This letter comes with an alarm clock, which represents the fact that young people are hearing the alarm bells ringing around whether we will have a world in the future," he said.

The protest was timed to coincide with Prime Minister John Key's visit to New York for the United Nations Climate Change Summit, Aydan said.

The aim of the summit was to urge world leaders to act on climate-change initiatives before the Copenhagen Climate Change meeting in December.

The pupils urged world leaders to agree on a global climate-change deal that was fair, ambitious and binding, he said.

New Zealand had a clean, green image and it was vitally important to maintain and enhance that image, he said.

He said it was the younger generation which would suffer as a result of climate change.

During the protest, the pupils set their cellphone alarms to ring in unison, demonstrating time was of the essence.

Mrs Dickson said she would be sending the clock and the letter to Mr English and she was sure he would respond to what was a peaceful protest.

It was good to see young people taking a stand about something they believed in, Mrs Dickson said.