Bushfires at centre of Australia’s latest climate strike walkout

 Hundreds of children walked out of school and marched on city streets around Australia on Friday in the latest climate strike.
This also included an 18-year-old, who lost her home in a recent bushfire and called on Canberra to take action.
In Sydney, more than 500 protesters – mostly school children – chanted outside the headquarters of the governing Liberal Party demanding more action against climate change, the national broadcaster ABC reported.
Shiann Broderick, whose home in northern New South Wales was destroyed in fires still raging in some parts of the country, accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of “denying science’’ in the government’s response to climate change.
“I want climate action. This is a crisis. Act like it,” Broderick said in comments reported by Australia’s ABC news.
“This terrible, catastrophic bushfire just swept through our area, we lost everything, and they’re just denying that climate change has anything to do with it,” she added.
In Adelaide, 200 protesters sat on the steps of the state parliament holding banners saying “desperate action for a dying planet.”
In Melbourne, an estimated 700 students sat in the road in front of state parliament to demand action.
“We’re doing this protest today as solidarity sit-down to show how much we care about those that are affected by the bushfires that are wreaking havoc across our country,” Chrissy Downes, 16, said.
Friday’s strikes follow the global school strike day in September that saw 300,000 Australians attend climate change rallies in one of the largest protests in the country’s history.
Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg started her first “school strike” in Aug. 2018 outside the Swedish parliament, inspiring a youth-led movement that has staged climate strikes worldwide under the slogan Fridays for Future. (dpa/NAN)