G8 comes to the Huon Valley

Grade 8 Huonville High School students have discovered that the vast majority of Tasmanians are willing to tackle the threat of climate change.

Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, today attended a launch of the student's findings sourced from a three year survey of Tasmanians and their thoughts about a changing climate.

The event, billed as the ‘G8 (grade 8) meeting that can make a difference', saw students, young climate activists and politicians coming together to envisage a cleaner, greener planet.

"This is a great day of sharing ideas, of working collaboratively towards answering that great question of how to stop catastrophic climate change, but more so, it's a day of hope."

"It's a perfect antidote to a parliament full of climate sceptics and big polluter bedfellows. It's through these brave young minds that the real sentiment of Tasmanians is laid bare for all to see."

"Huonville High's three year study shows a fantastic level of awareness and concern among Tasmanians. It shows an overwhelming number, 82 percent of respondents, agreeing that climate change is already a major threat to the way we live our lives."

"And perhaps most heartening of all, it shows a real willingness to make change. Despite acknowledging the financial costs of shifting to a more sustainable lifestyle, 69 percent of people asked said they are already taking up the challenge of cleaning up the planet. That's real progress, and a real lesson to those in government who choose to do little or nothing at all."

"Today's encouraging results do, however, reveal one concerning statistic. The Huonville students have found more people now believe that it's too hard to stop climate change. We must turn this around; defeatism must become activism."

Young climate activists from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition were also on hand to inspire the students with examples of what young, brave and willing minds can achieve.