Do you have a pressing problem, annoying anxiety or community conundrum? Jasminda Featherlight, our resident roving Agony Aunt, is here to help. Jasminda will be responding to questions from our News Of The Area papers on a rotating basis. Send your concerns to Jasminda care of edit@mcnota.com.au and include your title, initials and suburb.

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Dear Jasminda,
I find it very wrong that our kids are taking time off school to protest about climate change. They should be learning instead of skipping school to be radical protestors.
Mrs JU, Tea Gardens.

Dear Mrs JU,
You see, the problem here is that you think students should be learning, when they have been learning – they’ve been learning about the science of climate change. These young people, our future leaders, have chosen to take notice of the scientific community instead of talk-back radio hosts and greedy corporate polluters. And it is their future to protect, Mrs JU.

Many people are feeling a huge sense of despair lately regarding the inherent political apathy and downright disregard of our environment, so it is great to see that the upcoming generation are being innovative activists. They’re not putting their head in the sand, or coming up with baseless Twitter comments (cue the American President who blamed the Chinese for creating global warming as a hoax, confused climate change with the weather, and most recently only read part of his own government’s climate change report, stating that he doesn’t believe climate change has any economic impact).

Meanwhile, our young people are displaying a level of understanding and intellectual maturity at odds with those running the joint. Greta Thunberg from Sweden, who is just 15, is striking because she feels it is the only option left: ‘What is the point of learning facts,’ she asks, ‘when the most important facts given by the finest scientists are ignored by our politicians.’ It seems an obvious point, but that lack of clarity is missing from our decision-makers, perhaps because many of them won’t be around to see the repercussions of their inaction.

Radical problems need radical solutions, Mrs JU. If striking is what it takes, then so be it.

Carpe diem,
Jasminda.