Uprooting the system to address climate change

THE South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) youth participated in the Global Youth Climate Strike on Wednesday morning, September 22 in Durban.

The march commenced from City Hall at the corner of Bram Fischer and ended at Walnut Road in Durban where the group handed over a memorandum to the regional manager of the Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) KZN.

The demonstration was aimed at influencing the government’s decision-making regarding the effects of climate change. “The theme of the climate strike this year was ‘Uproot the System’, where we want to uproot the DMRE.

“The reason behind our protest is that we have seen South Africa’s temperatures increase and rainfall variability. This is a critical concern for South African youth as climate change is affecting the overall status and wellbeing of the country where we count water resources. In other parts of the world, climate researchers have found that in South Africa the real challenges are environmental issues, speedy environmental changes are resulting in clear effects on the community and environmental levels in different ways and aspects, starting with air quality, to temperature and weather patterns, reaching out to food security as well.

“Additionally the youth would like for our government to change the way they are producing energy because the methods which they are currently using/proposing such as nuclear, coal, and Karpowership are dangerous to human health and we should therefore change to renewable energy as it is much safer,” said SCDEA’s Mvuzo Ntombela.