Thousands of Australian schoolchildren abandoned their classrooms on November 30, in defiance of Prime Minister Morrison, to protest the federal government's lack of action on climate change. This upsurge in Australia was ignited by a young Swedish student Greta Thunberg, who vowed to protest against her nation's politicians inactivity on the Paris Climate Change Agreements.

This in turn inspired a couple of students from Castlemaine, Victoria to carry out their own protest at the office of Bridget McKenzie, a National Party senator. Which then ignited a nation wide protest by primary and high school students last Friday.

Read more: Student Strike 4 Climate Action stuns the nation

by Reyvi Mariñas

In 2008, I met Manoy Tony, an elder from the island of Rapu-Rapu in Bicol region, and Frances Quimpo, from the Centre for Environmental Concerns in the Philippines (CEC), in a public forum held in Melbourne about large-scale mining activities in the Philippines.

In the forum, they pointed out how huge mining companies like the Lafayette Philippines Inc, a subsidiary of an Australian mining company, have substantially destroyed the environment and community’s livelihood as a result of cyanide spills, pollution and depletion of water resources.

In fact, Lafayette’s two mine spills in Rapu-Rapu that happened in 2005 was amongst “the worst mining disasters in the Philippines”. Recent report shows that rehabilitation work on the mine site and surrounding coastal communities in Albay and Sorsogon has been very slow and the cost of rehabilitation has now ballooned to P310 million (‘Slow progress in Rapu-Rapu mine rehabilitation’, Rappler, 08 May 2018).

Read more: Irresponsible Australian mining in the Philippines persists