What on EARTH?

KERRE HAS AN IDEA FOR CHEERING UP THE YOUNG ONES CONCERNED ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

- KERRE McIVOR

Last week on talkback, I was asking people whether they’d ever been so moved by a cause, so impassioned by conviction, that they had taken to the streets and marched.

In the days before social media, people tended to walk their talk when they felt strongly about something – I’m thinking in particular of the nuclear-free movement and the anti springbok tour rallies. These days, people tend to vent their respective spleens on talkback or social media, then feel their job of peaceful protest is done. So, I posed the question and asked people for their stories.

One of the first callers was a 17-year-old called Cara. She had marched in three rallies, she said – two climate change marches and one for Black Lives Matter. Not, she said, that she thought marching would actually bring about change. Nobody listens, she said, and the planet would be gone in 30 years.