One teen is taking matters into his own hands with climate change.
Jürgen Shantz, a grade 11 at the Haliburton Highlands Secondary School has organized a series of rallies outside of the Dysart et al municipal office.
Schantz and a group of young people met, with signs and chants urging people for action and education about climate change now.
These rallies are happening every Friday, and Shantz hopes that this will lead to more being done for the environment, not just in Haliburton County but across the world.
In a media scrum, Shantz admits to skipping a full day of classes to come to the rallies but he says “do I really need to be in school if fifty years down the line, I have a cool job but all my children are going to live in a place that’s not worth living in…thats not worth it.”
Shantz explained that the idea for these Friday rallies came from something he saw on Snapchat. Shantz said he came across the story of a Swedish teen named Greta Thunberg who’s activism encouraged students and others to strike outside of the Swedish Parliament until the government aligns with the Paris Accord for climate change.
According to Schantz, hearing about Thunberg on Snapchat led him to her TED Talk and he said he empathized with her theoretical scenario of talking to her grandkids and saying she did what she could.
“I wanna do the same thing,” Said Shantz
The young man said he believes there will be more people at these rallies in weeks to come but suggested that education is a crucial part of a change.