Why I'm enrolled to vote
“Hi, my name is Cat, and I’m 25. That means diplomats and politicians have been negotiating climate agreements for my entire life. And yet here we are, still not doing anywhere near enough to stop global warming.
Young people are getting a raw deal. Youth unemployment is higher than ever. There’s a growing mental health crisis for under 25s. Rent prices are through the (leaky) roof, and the planet we call home is literally cooked.
We cop a lot of criticism for being apathetic. But the truth is, many of us have just given up on a political class that has resolutely failed us.
When you grow up with future visions of bushfires, floods, food shortages and trying to live through 50 degree days, so called “radical solutions” like phasing out coal seem pretty reasonable.
And yet last year in Parliament, during the middle of a heatwave, leaders of our country dedicated an afternoon of governing to fondling a piece of coal.
Young people have to rise up and show the Boomers in power that we’re a force to be reckoned with. Who else is going to stand up for us?
There’s an election in Victoria coming up at the end of 2018. If Victorian politicians want young people to turn out for them, the way swathes of passionate youths tuned out to vote for Jeremy “Jezza” Corbyn in the UK, then they will need to present us with a vision worth voting for.
That starts with bold action to address climate climate change and protect our future.”
Cat Nadel is a climate change campaigner at Environment Victoria and co-producer of the podcast Generation Anxiety, which looks at social issues from a systemic and youthful perspective.