Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of people turned out in parks and on streets in 112 Australian towns and cities to protest against government inaction on climate change. In the evening, an estimate published by the Sydney Morning Herald, the nation’s leading newspaper, said 300,000 people, or about 1.2 percent of the country’s population.
The figurehead of the action was Swedish student Greta Thunberg but the turnout on the day showed the community that there are many people who are concerned about global warming and the other phenomena associated with climate change. Next Friday, New Zealand is going to hold similar protests.
I started to grab images of placards and other signs in the early afternoon and I finished up at about 4.20pm with 46 files saved to disc. Most of these were found after tuning into the #climatestrike hashtag. They are just the placards that caught my attention: the more amusing or unusual creations. There were many other signs that I left untouched in the hours during which I undertook the survey. I have categorised the selected images in the following way:
The figurehead of the action was Swedish student Greta Thunberg but the turnout on the day showed the community that there are many people who are concerned about global warming and the other phenomena associated with climate change. Next Friday, New Zealand is going to hold similar protests.
I started to grab images of placards and other signs in the early afternoon and I finished up at about 4.20pm with 46 files saved to disc. Most of these were found after tuning into the #climatestrike hashtag. They are just the placards that caught my attention: the more amusing or unusual creations. There were many other signs that I left untouched in the hours during which I undertook the survey. I have categorised the selected images in the following way:
- The prime minister and other politicians
- Variations on the word “hot”
- Relating to school
- On children
- On old age
- On introverts
- Popular culture references
- Internet culture inventions
- Some dogs
- Plays on the name of the planet Uranus
- The rest
Above: “Prime minister’s to do list.”
Above: “Scomo likes it hot.” “Scomo” is the nickname of Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister.
Above: “I’ve seen smarter cabinets at Ikea.”
Above: “Scomo rhymes with ohno for a reason.”
Above: “We actually do have the power to force politicians to take action.”
Above: “Hey man you got a climate policy? We’d be a lot cooler if you did.”
Above: “Make earth great again.” Refers to Donald Trump.
Above: “Fossil fools.” Shows the Australian prime minister and the American president. On the day of the protest the two men met in Washington, DC.
Two: Variations on the word “hot”
Above: “Hot girl summer.”
Above: “The planet is getting hotter than my imaginary boyfriend.”
Above: “We can’t afford to get any hotter.”
Three: Relating to school
Above: “I just took a climate change test. Turns out we’re 100% killing the planet.”
Above: “School bus 2050.”
Above: “the world is our classroom.”
Above: “We’ll go to school when the earth is cool.”
Above: “Well do our maths when you do your job.”
Four: On children
Above: “The sea is getting higher than me.”
Above: “Stop burning our babies’ futures.” These pregnant women were wearing T-shirts saying, “It’s getting hot in here.”
Five: On old age
Above: “Grumpy old man who supports smart students.”
Above: “You will die of old age we will die from climate change.”
Six: On introverts
Above: “It’s so bad even introverts are here.”
Above: “It’s so bad the introverts are here.”
Seven: Popular culture references
Above: “This planet is hotter than Shawn Mendes.” This man is, I learned after doing a Google search, a Canadian singer, songwriter and model.
Above: “At the start of every disaster movie there’s a scientist being ignored.”
Above: “Climate change is worst [sic] than Voldemort.” Harry Potter’s nemesis in the novels by JK Rowling.
Above: “Death for my metal not my planet.”
Above: “Too hot for bananas.” Reference to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s ‘Bananas in Pyjamas’ children’s show.
Above: “Nemo no more.” The protagonist, a fish, in the 2003 Pixar Animation Studios movie ‘Finding Nemo’, which is set in the waters off the Australian coast.
Above: “It’s so bad I skipped the Area 51 raid.” Refers to a legendary and secret US military site located in the state of Nevada. The "raid" was "a Facebook joke that quickly attracted millions of followers", according to a story on the BuzzFeed website.
Above: “There’s no Creative Mode to save our planet.” Creative Mode is a part of the computer game ‘Minecraft’. According to the game’s wiki, in this mode, “players have an infinite amount of resources to build with, with no health or hunger to hamper their building and the ability to destroy all blocks instantly.” I had to look this up as I don’t play computer games.
Eight: Internet culture inventions
Above: “RIP earth we are gonna miss you boo xox.”
Above: “What if we saved the planet haha jk …”
Above: “Nooo don’t kill the earth it’s so sexy haha.”
Above: “The apocalypse is not accessible.”
Nine: Some dogs
Above: “K9 for planet earth.”
Above: “I have better climate pawlicies.”
Ten: Plays on the name of the planet Uranus
Above: “Keep the earth clean it’s not Uranus.”
Above: “Act now Scomo B4 earth looks like Uranus.”
Eleven: The rest
Above: “Get your head out of the sand.”
Above: “I recycled some trash for my sign.”
Above: “If you’re not worried you’re not paying attention.”
Above: “I’m sure the dinosaurs thought they had time too.”
Above: “Pig powered by clean coal.”
Above: “Save the bees, avoid the sting. UR extinction.” This is the popular activist Danny Lim with one of his famous sandwich boards.
Above: “There is no planet B.”
Above: “We are nature’s immune system.”
I apologise to the people who took these photos for not crediting them, but it wasn’t always possible to know who took the photos. Further, making a decision to capture such information would have significantly increased the complexity of the process. If you see a photo you took and you want me to either add your name to the caption or take the photo off this post, get in touch.
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