Extract from ABC News
Updated
Photo:
Members of the Pacific Climate Warriors sailed to Sydney to protest Australia's coal industry. (350.org/Dean Sewell)
A group of young Pacific Islanders calling themselves
the Climate Warriors has sailed on canoes to Australia to mount a
protest against the Australian coal industry and call for action on
climate change.
The group, which represents 13 countries and
includes the daughter of Marshall Islands president Christopher Loeak,
has brought with it five specially made traditional canoes, which will
lead a fleet of boats to blockade the coal port of Newcastle."The coal port is the largest in the world and there are plans for it to expand and we want to bring the message that the expansion is definitely going to have an effect on the islands, not just in the Marshalls but all over the Pacific," said Milan Loeak.
"We just want to share our stories and make sure that people are aware that the decisions that are being made over here are directly affecting our islands back home."
The Warriors are in Australia as part of 350.org's protest of the port, which will culminate in a flotilla of the Warriors and Australian volunteers blocking coal exports for a day on Friday.
Fiji Climate Warrior George Nacewa said he had already seen villagers displaced by rising sea levels. He said the expansion of the port would have wide-ranging effects.
"These expansions will affect us and I live in a generation that has inherited a perfect environment but I am not too sure if I can pass this on to my kids and future generations to come," he said.
The Warriors made their journey to Sydney on handmade canoes.
Getting their send-off in Vanuatu, Iasoa Chief Kawea Sausiara told the Warriors the canoes carry a vital message.
"If climate change is not stopped we will lose our cultural activities. This is the message that we must remember. If not, Vanuatu will be nothing more than a wasteland," he said.
Vanuatu's acting director of the Ministry of Climate Change said Australians must sit up and pay attention to the Warriors' plea.
"The main thing we need to tell the Australians is this: Australia, you need to do more to help small countries like Vanuatu. In our islands we now have more periods of drought. We are experiencing more intense cyclones. We are experiencing sea level rise and coastal erosion. We are losing our coral reefs as temperatures change," he said.
Australia's changing stance on climate change is being watched by the world, with it facing criticism for abolishing the carbon tax, proposing to reduce the Renewable Energy Target and keeping climate change off the G20 agenda.
Ms Loeak criticised Prime Minister Tony Abbott's absence from the recent UN climate summit in New York, but said Pacific people can only keep pushing.
"I believe everybody wishes that there was more support coming in from Australia to address climate change and take more action on it," she said.
"What we can do right now is just keep pushing and keep doing movements like this, supporting movements like this to bring more awareness on it and to get more people to act."
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