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Young people are on front line of climate change, but they’re not accepting it as an inevitability

In Bellawongarah, sundown is replaced by a moment of silence. Then the “symphony of the evening” begins.

The gentle rustling of trees gives way to a cacophony of croaks and hoots as nature comes alive.

Nestled between Berry and the Kangaroo Valley in the NSW Shoalhaven region, about 130 people call the quaint mountain community home.

Surrounded by temperate rainforest and rolling valleys, it’s easy to understand Bellawongarah’s hold.

Bellawongarah scenery
Nestled between Berry and the Kangaroo Valley in the NSW Shoalhaven region, about 130 people call this quaint mountain community home.(Supplied)

However, in recent years, something has changed.

First, the frogs and snakes disappeared, and with it the amphibians’ nightly melody — the side-effect of a drought that relegated dams to a “murky puddle” and dried out the once-damp rainforest.

Then the bushfires came.

While Eleanor’s parents’ property was spared, as she watched wildlife seek shelter in her back yard from the inferno around them, the magnitude of the situation became clear.

“It was quite scary because, for months on end, we just could smell smoke in the air just travelling up the coast,” she says.

“But it did also make me want to act and to speak out after seeing the effects of climate change in my own life and my own community.”

For young Aussies, it’s personal

Young Australians are front and centre of the climate crisis and, in the face of extreme weather events across the country, it’s a story shaped by personal experience.

Our World, Our Say — the nation’s largest consultation of children and young people on climate change and disaster risk, led by the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience and World Vision — surveyed 1,447 young Australians between the ages of 10 and 24 years.

The 2020 report found that than 80 per cent of participants aged over 16 years were concerned or extremely concerned about climate change.

scorched earth where there once was a rainforest and a burnt wombat warning sign
Eleanor’s property was spared in the Black Summer bushfires, but nearby Kangaroo Valley was devastated.(ABC Illawarra: Kelly Fuller )

Greater than 90 per cent of those surveyed reported experiencing at least one natural hazard event in the three years prior, while 63 per cent felt that disasters were occurring more often.

“We had to evacuate with the bushfires, which obviously was a major experience that I’ll always remember,” Eleanor says.

“And so people just think, ‘Oh, it’s just climate change, it’s just the world warming’. But it’s got such major consequences.”

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As swathes of Australia’s east coast grapple with the fallout from sustained rainfall and flash flooding, the conversation has again turned to the nation’s climate response.

However, this time, it’s young people who are making their voice heard.

As tens of thousands of students descended on School Strike For Climate rallies across the country last month, teenagers affected by the floods spoke of becoming “climate refugees”.

“Have you ever had to flee from your house, in the middle of the night, in the middle of a storm, scared out of your mind because you don’t know what’s going to happen, or if you will survive, or if your house will still be OK, or if your friends are OK?” Ella O’Dwyer-Oshlack, 13 — who lost her house during Lismore’s flood catastrophe — told crowds outside Kirribilli House.

“It’s not something I would wish on anyone.”

Direct exposure to extreme weather events can take a toll

Emerging Australian and international evidence suggests that children and young people who are directly exposed to extreme weather events are at risk of a range of psychological effects.

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