Currently our focus at Wakatipu High School is to minimise our contributions to climate change. We are doing this through alternative transport days to encourage staff and students to leave their cars at home for the day, raising awareness of climate change through strikes and presentations, and planting natives around the local area in community planting days.
WHY DID YOU GET INVOLVED?
I got involved because I enjoy spending time outdoors, whether it be running, skiing or tramping. You don't have to be Einstein to work out that the environment needs to be protected for these activities to continue being enjoyable.
WHAT SHOULD WE HOPE FOR?
We should hope for a mass movement to reduce our impact on the environment. Although we can pretend that big companies burning fossil fuels are the sole cause of all the pollution and emissions, we as ordinary citizens play a role too.
HOW DO WE GET THERE?
One person alone planting trees might not achieve much, but if the 4million people in New Zealand all spent a couple of hours on a Saturday morning planting natives ... that's a fair number of trees. It's the small things completed by many people that make the biggest differences. Simple things like making smart choices about single-use plastics when shopping can play a large role in this goal.
